


Fabricator of Dreams

by calleryfield



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AU, F/F, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 15:12:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5830306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calleryfield/pseuds/calleryfield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xion’s been feeling that something’s off about where she is right now. It’s not her friends. It’s not the place that she’s staying. Just something inside her feels odd, like an invisible presence, but maybe it’s just her imagination.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 1

“The sky’s so beautiful today,” A small black haired girl sits on top of a clock tower that watched over the town. She stares at the sight of the sun setting behind the distant, green hills, as the sun begins to hide away for the night to rise. It’s the sky that the three always sees everyday, but everyday, the girl seems to find different features to the sky that make it all the more beautiful. The girl leans back on her hands before turning toward her two friends: a boy with golden hair that could rival the sun’s own rays, and a man with red hair like firecrackers.  
The other two looks back at the girl then back toward the horizon. She notices the gleam in their eyes as they smile, too; the joy glowing upon their faces.  
“Yeah, huh?” The red hair man says before laying down, “It’d just be nice to sleep under the sun all day.”  
“C’mon, Axel,” the blonde jeers, “You sleep all day!”  
“Hey! I’m a busy guy, unlike you two,” Axel gets up and shoves the blonde’s shoulder, “I’ve got lots of work. I gotta take some time off for myself every once in a while.”  
“Not sure if sleeping really counts as busy,” the black haired girl mutters and giggles to herself.  
“You know I work, right, Xion?” Axel pouts, “I thought between the two of you, you’d know that. Or what? You guys suddenly going against me now? Just poor old me?”  
Roxas snorts, “Poor old you, huh?”  
Axel grumbles, realizing he dug himself a hole. Xion and Roxas couldn’t help but laugh at the moodiness of their oldest friend. Despite the many times they bicker up here, the three enjoy that about their relationship. They could easily talk about their opinions and joke about it, too, without the other getting offended. It’s a mutual understanding.  
At least, that’s what Xion enjoys the most out of her friendships with the two. Yet, what she enjoys the most is just being with them. They could be doing anything else; they could be off eating ice cream or watching movies together, but what really matters to her is being with them. To hear them laugh, to hear them talking, to be in their presence and feel their presence fully, that’s what she loves.  
It’s also a reason for her fear, as well. The presence that she craves. She fears that all of that is nothing. She fears that one day, that that joy and happiness she feels with them would disappear, one way or another. Everytime she parts ways after their get-togethers, she has this fear that once she turns her back, they will disappear from her. That once she goes home every night that the next day, they will simply vanish. She doesn’t know how long this fear has been going; for all she knows, she could have had this fear ever since she was a kid. It made her all the more afraid of nighttime. She just wants to be with Axel and Roxas forever. Up on the clock tower, or just running around Twilight Town.  
“Hey! Earth to Xion! You there?” Xion sees Roxas waving his hands in front of her face. She is taken aback by the sudden movement, but she laughs it off.  
She turns back sheepishly to Roxas and Axel, “What’s up?” Despite her need to be in the presence, she also has a bad tendency of being in her thoughts. A little too often than she wants, but the other two don’t really mind; really, it’s become their routine.  
Roxas smiles and chuckles, “Sorry. I thought we lost you for a bit. Axel and I were saying that the sun’s getting pretty low, so…”  
Xion turns toward the sky and notices how the sun has nearly disappeared behind the hills. The sky is no longer as colorful and bright as it was when they first came here. The clouds no longer reflects the deep reddish color it did; it started to take on a heather purple. The sky itself lacks the burning colors of yellow, red, and orange, and instead slowly blackens. How odd that the time went by so quickly.  
Xion nods and starts to get up, helping Roxas up. Axel had already gotten up by the time Xion walked over to his position. She wouldn’t have helped him even she managed to get their on time; he’s far too large for her to help up.  
Then, they make their way down the stairwells of the clocktower to the plaza below. Under the streetlights, they say their farewells, making plans for the next day, ready of whatever the world may throw at them. The streets now only sound with their voices. It’s their own little world at the plaza.  
Then the fear starts at her again. Like it usually does. Xion turns back and still sees Axel and Roxas making their way back home together. She sees them joking around with each other, punching each other’s arms and putting their arms around each other. She smiles softly but feels a clenching feeling in her chest. She knows that she’ll see them again tomorrow; they all promised, but she can’t help but feel like there is something odd about them leaving.  
As she sees them finally disappear behind the corner of the alleyway, she shakes away that feeling she has inside her, assuring herself. We’ll see each other again, she keeps telling herself as she turns the other way and begins to walk. Just like we always do.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Nighttime is always her favorite part of the day. Every little detail of the night sky is so astonishing to her. How the sky itself makes her think of a never ending quilt, with each patch of the sky sown with soft, amethyst clouds and little starlight.  
There comes the great benefits of the nighttime — one of them being rest, of course. After a long day of planning the next day and watching over today, there is nothing better to do but to sleep. The other, however, is just drawing the night sky. Her routine of the night time usually took to that: drawing and admiring the sky right before sleeping under the magnificent scene.  
She is just about to finish coloring the sky on her notepad with little shades of midnight blue. It seems almost realistic on the paper — a perfect replica of what’s above her, and it makes her happy.  
At last, she finishes and she holds up her notepad, gazing at it with awe. She certainly feels accomplished today, as she brings the notepad close to her chest. She holds it tightly and closes her eyes, taking in the hard work she’s done for the day and what’s to come tomorrow.  
What’s to come tomorrow? She thinks to herself, putting the notepad aside and lying down on the large cotton blanket that covers the grassy ground for her to sleep. As she rests her head on the pillow, she looks up and stares at the starry night. She knows that it’ll be the same old routine, of course. Being stuck here until it’s safe to leave this place be. She also doesn’t mind being here though. Her little place here is one of the nicest places she had to stay at. It has a sort of cozy aura to it. For what reason, she couldn’t put her finger on it, but nonetheless, it’s nothing to complain about. All she knows is that she’ll be here for a long while until she has fully completed her task here.  
She turns her head and sees her pale notepad. Smiling, she puts a hand on the notepad.  
“Goodnight, Xion,” she whispers, “Sweet dreams.” Soon, she too closes her eyes, dreaming her own little dream.


	2. Day 2

Morning arrives with a faint light glistening through the window. The shine of the sun is strong enough to wake Xion, but Xion doesn’t mind: she’s a morning person anyways. She gets up stretches her arms, looking out the window at the source of the light; she can’t help but be in awe of the light that never ceases to rise every waking day. It means that it’s going to be another day of adventure with her friends.  
Her window was left partially open from the night before, so the room had become cold by the soft wind blowing in. Her translucent, white curtains blow gently with the wind. That, too, she enjoys. The cold wind allows her to wake up more, rather than drift back to sleep. After all, she needs to get ready for the day.  
Xion moves her sheets off her body and swings her legs off the bed, getting up to walk over to the bathroom. After locking the two doors of the bathroom (one that connects to the main room and the other that connects to her bedroom), she looks at the little oval white marble mirror, whose borders curl into fleur-de-lis at the top and bottom. She walks closer and takes in her image: the small freckles on her face are covered by the messy short black hair strands that stray; the deep blue eyes that resembles last night’s sky. It makes her giggle the way she looks. She imagines what it would be like if she just went out with Roxas and Axel like this — straight out of bed in her baggy sweatpants and loose T-shirt. Those two probably wouldn’t mind, but everyone else would be astounded. Well, anyways, time to get ready. She smiles to herself, going through her perfunctory morning routine.  
Once she dressed herself in a mint green shirt dress, she makes herself breakfast — some leftover cookies she baked a couple of days ago and some green tea. From the kitchen, she walks over to her couch and coffee table to turn on TV. She immediately switches the channels over to her favorite cartoon channels; there’s no point checking the news, really. There is never anything new going on around Twilight Town, and she usually likes having anything be a surprise to her. It just makes it all the more exciting.  
After an hour of watching her favorite cartoon, there comes a knocking on her door. She turns toward the sound and gets up from her seat. After putting down her cup of tea, she swiftly makes her way over to the door and peeks through the peephole. Immediately, she smiles and giggles seeing her blonde friend awkwardly standing by the door, hunched over with his hands tucked in his pockets.  
Opening the door, she greets her friend, only for him to jump back and try to laugh his shock off.  
“Ready to go?” Roxas smiles. Even despite the weather, he wore a rather thick, gray sweatshirt, but at least he wore white shorts. It makes Xion wonder what Axel’s wearing if Roxas doesn’t necessarily seem hot or cold.  
“Yeah,” She peers around the corners, “but where’s Axel?”  
“He wanted to wait downstairs,” Roxas jerks his head to the side to gesture, “He doesn’t really like walking around the apartment halls. It’s kinda cramped.”  
“I figured,” Xion smiles. “Well, let’s go.”  
Roxas nods and starts down the long hallway past other apartment doors toward the elevator. Xion quickly follows behind.  
Once Xion and Roxas got onto the elevator, Xion lets her mind wander for a bit. She imagines what their day is going to be like. What adventure awaits them. She remembers the original plan they had the past day, but they always have a tendency to do other extra things.  
“Xion?” Roxas keeps his eye on the screen of the elevator that showed the level numbers. She looks over to him.  
“Yeah?”  
“It’s going to be a good day, right?” He looks down to his feet.  
“Of course,” Xion grabs Roxas’s shoulder and turns him to look at her, “Everyday with you guys is always good! … But what’s wrong?” Roxas looks into his friend’s deep blue eyes but slowly averts his gaze in thought.  
“Just,” He quickly turns back to her, “I just wish that we can just be like this forever. Just joking around forever. Without any worries and all.” All Xion can do is give a heartfelt smile and hug her friend, and he hesitantly hugs her back.  
“Don’t worry, Roxas,” Xion lets go of Roxas before holding both of his hands tightly, “There’s always time for us to joke around forever. All three of us are going to be together, even if vacation’s over.”  
Roxas remains quiet at her response but nods in understanding. He pulls off a small smile and turns toward the door as it opens to the ground level. “Together.”  
Xion has to wonder why Roxas suddenly brought this up. He always seems to be worried about one thing or another, but it all goes back to not being together — the three of them, that is. It’s just like her own fear that her friends would disappear if she turns away.  
To assure Roxas, she decides to hold his hand and grip it tightly as they walk out to meet Axel, who is sitting on the stairs of the entrance.

 

“Phew,” The girl of the woods lets out a sigh. She almost forgot to color a small section of her drawing; if she didn’t, then she wouldn’t have been able to create the holographic monitor that she uses to watch over the realm. It’s also known that if she didn’t color that small section, the whole memory would have faltered — not good at all. Now that she’s gotten her whole scene set up, she can now watch over the person who overall owns this memory realm: Xion.  
Namine brushes her blond hair to the side and twirls strands of it around her finger as she watches Xion on the monitor laughing away with Roxas and Axel. It’s nice to check on the central being of the realm every once in awhile, rather than just draw out every single day for the being. It gives her a little taste of experiencing the memory herself — not just watching the memory from a distant. Oddly enough since she still isn’t experiencing it.  
But seeing Xion happy means that Namine is doing her job correctly. Keeping the central figure happy. It also means that Namine is almost done with her job and she will be able to leave the dreamscape soon to another.  
However, if she is going to leave soon, that means Namine will have to go travelling around the memory for a little bit. She loves to explore as much as she can without interfering with the memory. It’s always a habit of hers to check around the town, village, or city before she leaves so that she has more memories about this place. She often feels bad if she ever forgets about a person that she cared for, but she also doesn’t want to connect with the person; that would just make her hurt.  
So, now that she has the whole monitor set up and the memory of the day created, Namine now has a little bit of free time. Yesterday, she didn’t set up the memory ahead of time, meaning that she had to recreate the entire memory right there and then. It’s a good thing she outlined it yesterday. Right now, she should outline tomorrow’s memory, but with the high chance of her leaving soon, she thinks that some time for herself around town would be great.  
Without further ado, she puts the notepad to the side and gets up, patting away some eraser residue that landed on her pure white dress. Her eyes leave the monitor as she looks up to the exit: a large crack in a brick wall to Twilight Town. She takes a step towards the exit but feels hesitant, looking back at the monitor that showed Xion, Roxas, and Axel together. Why was something making her feel this way? As though something really will go wrong this time that she explores.  
She shakes her head, ridding of the notion, and forces a smile on her face to keep her confidence up. She knows that she’ll be able to venture around as usual without getting caught; it’s just the way that she is. 

 

If there’s anything that never changes in their everyday endeavors, it’s that everyday the three of them would go out and buy their favorite seasalt ice cream. When she first tasted it, Xion nearly puked because of the peculiar taste. It certainly was something new to her, but even after the poor events of the first try, she tried again and eventually she started enjoying it. Thus, the routine of going out and buying ice cream remains everyday they hung out with each other.  
At the moment, Xion and Roxas went out to buy the ice cream together since Axel wanted to lounge around a little longer at the Struggle Arena. Of course, Xion and Roxas didn’t mind going to buy it; in fact, this was also a part of their routine as well. Axel gets lazy and asks for ice cream. Then, Xion offers to buy it, and Roxas offers to go with Xion to buy it.  
“And the weirdest thing is that,” Roxas pauses in speech, “Everyone doesn’t seem to hear it either!”  
“Oh, please,” Xion laughs, “It’s just a rumor! I don’t think it’s true.”  
“But,” Roxas pouts, “Pence went to check it out once. He says that sometimes, he can hear some sort of machine sound from the wall, and other times, it’s a voice!”  
“But!” Xion argues, “Pence is also the one who said those other rumors around town are true, and what did we do?”  
“...Run around for nothing,” Roxas looks down. Xion nods. “But, this could be true! Maybe we should check it out someday.”  
“We’ll see,” Xion keeps her eyes ahead as they get closer to the ice cream store. There is a long line of people buying ice cream from the old lady who runs the store.  
“Looks like everyone’s in the mood for ice cream,” Xion chuckles.  
“Well, the weather is pretty hot, so go figure,” Roxas smiles. Xion nods in agreement as they place themselves in line.  
It is time to let her mind wander again. She looks across the town from her position and notices that the weather is causing a heat haze to stir. She stares out to the farthest point from her view — the wall that Roxas was talking about. She wonders if what he said was true: that there are some odd sounds coming from the crack. She remembers going through that crack once when she was little. From then, she knows that there’s a large forest behind the woods: when they were little, she and Roxas used to play hide-and-seek there, and she got lost and afraid. Then, they vowed to never play there again. Beside that, she knows that no one likes to go around the forest. There isn’t much to do there anyways, aside from the abandon mansion past the forest, but that’s supposedly haunted.  
So then where would the sound come from? No one stays in the forest. Perhaps it was just some squirrels fighting over acorns or birds making their nest. But that wouldn’t explain the machine sounds that Pence was talking about.  
She sighs and lets her head hang low, but once she looks back up and sees the crack again, she sees a figure. Beyond the heat haze, near the crack of the wall, is a figure of pure white. A person who seems to be wearing a white long robe and has light blond hair. The person is unrecognizable from the waves of heat. Xion tries to remember if there is anyone around town who looks like that. The town is small enough so that everyone knows everyone, but this person is new. She doesn’t recognize them, at all. At first, she thinks that perhaps it is that lady merchant who sells jewelry next door to the ice cream stand, but when she looks at the jewelry store, the lady merchant was there.  
When she looks back at the figure, the figure seems to notice her gaze. Both remains still, as though they both are frozen in time. Curiosity is shared between the two, but as soon as Xion attempts to walk toward the faraway figure, she is knocked back into reality.  
“Xion!” Roxas shouts. Xion jumps back, thoughts interrupted. She quickly looks back at Roxas, who is holding the three blue ice creams, before turning to look at the figure again, who disappeared. She blinks in confusion and sheepishly takes one of the ice creams from Roxas.  
As they leave the stand, Roxas nudges Xion, “Where’d your mind go this time?”  
She quietly says, “I was just thinking about the rumor you were talking about earlier.”  
“Oh! We should check the wall. Maybe it’s true,” Roxas smiles. Xion smiles back and nods. She needs to see if what she saw is true. Someone emerging from the crack.  
The two hastily make their way over to the crack in the wall. Hardly anyone is around the wall, aside from the people cleaning up the area. Roxas first takes a look through the crack to the other side of the wall and shrugs.  
“Nothing but trees,” he mutters. Xion gives him a skeptical look.  
“Let me see,” Xion crouches and looks through the crack. Roxas lied. From what she could see through the crack, there’s a large blanket sprawled on the grassy field and many tiny lights scattered around. Fireflies? “Hang on, don’t you see that sheet or the fireflies?” Roxas returns the quizzical look and tries to look again.  
“No…” Roxas turns back to Xion, “Are you okay?”  
Xion remains quiet.  
“I guess it’s the heat, huh?”  
“...Yeah.” She passes off what she sees. Roxas shrugs and turns toward the entrance to the Struggle Arena.  
“Well, another rumor debunked,” Roxas grumbles, “Gonna have to tell Pence he’s lying. Anyways, let’s head back. Axel must be hungry now.”  
Xion looks down to Roxas’s hands, which are starting to get covered by melted ice cream, “Hope he likes liquid ice cream.”  
Roxas looks down at his hands and starts laughing, “Oh well, he’s just going to have to deal with it.”  
Xion nods and the two return to the Struggle Arena.

 

That’s odd. Namine hides atop one of the buildings nearby, as she watches Xion and Roxas walk to the Struggle Arena. Did she see me? Namine rubs her forehead. She feels her heart beating rapidly from the fear of being caught. That would have been disastrous. It could have led to a growing friendship and that would only make her job harder: not good at all.  
With the fear bugging her, Namine decides that the best course of action would just head back to her little sanctuary, even if she wanted to look around town; after all, she could just return to town another day.


	3. Day 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for following he story so far. Sorry its a little slow, but it's going to pick up real soon! Hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter and leave a review/kudos if you can!!

How long has it been? That figure from a distance. It still bugs Xion, even after however long it’s been. She can still imagine and feel that feeling of curiosity — a fixated stance in time that she shared with that other figure. She remembers that moment when the heat was burning her skin and making her perspire as she kept her eye on the glowing figure, who stood out too well from the norms of the town.  
The figure was different, and so she couldn't help but be curious. She wonders if the person is a traveller of sorts, who wants to expand their horizon. It’s not often that Twilight Town gets visitors, and Xion never really understood that; the town is so beautiful and the community is generally warm that it makes her wonder why it seems to be overlooked.  
Perhaps the person is actually moving in. If that’s the case, then Xion would like to greet and welcome them. She always loves welcoming and getting to know new people, especially helping them learn about the town she really grew up in.  
She imagines what it would be like meeting the person. She didn’t know what the person looks like up close since they were so far away the day before. What gender are they? What color eyes do they have? How old are they? Her thoughts dance with the many combinations of what the person could possibly look like, and it eventually gave way to creating possible scenarios of what meeting the new person would be like — the possibility of a blooming friendship; or a relationship.  
Xion feels her face burning red and shakes the thought away almost immediately. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help take the red away from her face. She looks up to see Roxas giving her a small smile, while Axel's smirking away.  
"So, Xion," Axel grabs her shoulder, "Something on your mind?"  
"Yeah," Roxas joins in, "You're a little red."  
"Ahh," Xion looks down and dwindles her thumbs, "I just — There's this person I saw yesterday and —"  
"Oh, new crush, huh?" Axel laughs, but Xion smacks him on the shoulder to hush him.  
"No," Xion sighs, "I just wanted to greet them is all. It's not everyday that we get visitors."  
Roxas puts a hand on his chin in thought, "Visitors?"  
"Y-yeah," Xion rubs her neck, "I saw them when we were in line for ice cream."  
"Hm," Roxas closes his eyes and sigh, "I must've missed them, but maybe we can go find them?"  
"Come on," Axel waves his hand, "It's a small town. We'll probably just see them around anyways. Besides, who would want to miss the arcade, anyways?”  
Xion looks down to her feet but nods in agreement. The arcade is always filled with the teens and kids from the town, so one of them is bound to be the mystery person. Hopefully she will wind up meeting them. Whoever they are. And hopefully they become friends.  
Roxas looks at Xion with unease, but he pats her shoulder and gives her an assuring smile. He then passes a look to Axel, "Then let's go."

The day passes and it's already nighttime. After a day of going to the local arcade and losing to the notorious Roxas, Xion walks back home alone. She giggles about how sore of a loser Axel was when he lost 15 to 27 at a shooting game against Roxas, and how Roxas was quick to share the tickets he racked up for little gifts at the shop. Despite the large amount of tickets they gained, the trio wasn't able to get any of the large items they displayed. It was then that Axel concluded only a person who spends an entire week at the arcade would have to get that large gift: rigged. Either way, they all winded up getting little candies and they all got identical seashell keychains of pink and blue.  
Xion takes a seat at a nearby bench illuminated by the streetlights and brings out her own keychain, looking at the keychain's blended color of pink and blue that blurred into purple. The seashell itself is beautiful and it's perfect to add to her growing seashell collection back home. What made this one different, however, is the meaning . She smiles, knowing that now, she has something to remember her friends. A little special souvenir of a memory.  
As she holds the seashell up to the light and watches the light reflect on the surface of the shell, Xion then remembers the certain light reflecting on someone from a distance. The mysterious figure. She forgot to keep an eye out for them. She promised herself that she would look for them, but she was probably having too much fun winning against Roxas in air hockey. Xion almost knew that this was going to happen, but it slipped her mind anyways. Now, she only wants to slap her forehead for forgetting, but she also couldn't blame herself; she should be enjoying with her friends anyways  
"Maybe another day then," Xion sighs and gets up from the bench, placing the seashell back in her sky blue bag. Then, she starts her walk back home. As she walks, she passes the clock tower: 7:15 PM it reads. She is astonished by how early it actually is, but rather happy because that means that she has time to try and find the mystery person.  
Immediately, Xion starts to sprint down the streets, trying to find the person, reviewing the image of the person in her mind over and over again. Where could that person be?  
As she turns the corner, Xion hastily stops herself before bumping into a certain trio. In front of her stands the town's best known trio: Sora, Kairi, and Riku. Though they are popular around town, Xion only knows Sora well, simply because of his outgoing personality. She also finds herself comfortable around Kairi, as well, since Kairi is very open to her, too. Riku, on the other hand, is a little bit of a mystery.  
"Xion!" Sora and Kairi grin and hug her.  
"Hey," Xion speaks softly, hugging them back before letting them go. "Sorry, guys, I'm sort of in a hurry."  
"What for?" Riku speaks up.  
"I'm trying to find someone," Xion looks over to Riku, "I think someone new came to town."  
"Someone new?" Sora chirps. "I didn't hear anything about that." He looks back at Kairi and back to Xion. Sora is actually one of the townspeople who, like Xion, helps welcome newcomers; in fact, he is actually the first to know if a newcomer is here. It surprised Xion that even Sora didn't hear about the newcomer.  
"Yeah, me neither," Kairi says, "That might just be a rumor, but I could help you look around." Xion smiles at the notion and nods.  
"Sure! It's better to find things with more people anyways," Xion smiles.  
"Alright then," Riku gestures a smile, "Then we'll help, too. We should start looking." 

The four make their way around town trying to find the person after Xion told them what the figure looked like. Sora and Kairi were quick to raid every building they passed to check, but they still couldn't find any. Riku would be the one yelling at his two friends about invading every building they pass, but Xion didn't mind checking either. Regardless of their effort, they still couldn't find the person after two hours.  
"Are you sure there's a new person?" Riku inquires, turning to look at Xion, who is busy checking past the corner toward the Struggle Arena. She gradually turns and looks up to the white haired male, looking into his silver blue eyes.  
"Well," Xion looks away bashfully, "I'm pretty sure I saw someone new."  
"Then we REALLY gotta find them!" Sora pouts and starts down the same way they came.  
"Come on, Sora," Kairi shakes her head, "We could try again tomorrow. Right, Xion? It's already 9; I think we're probably having a hard time finding them 'cause we're tired. "  
"Right," Xion sighs and runs her hand through her hair, "Then, let's try again tomorrow."  
"Aww," Sora pouts, "Alright. Then let's go home, guys." The brown haired boy looks at the red haired female and the silver haired boy as the two nod. Then, the three wave farewell and walk together back home.  
As Xion waves farewell to them, she turns away and sighs again. It's time for her to head home, too. With disappointment, she walks down the slope of the street toward her apartment complex; that is, until something caught Xion's eyes. Before she was able to reach her apartment complex, she finds a small glowing light as small as an insect. The light flickers on and off as it floats past her blue eyes. Why is it that the light seems so familiar to her? She feels like she saw it very recently. As she continues to watch the peculiar light flicker brightly and dim greatly, she is hit by the sudden realization  
The fireflies. From the mysterious crack in the wall. She should've known. No where else in town has fireflies until she saw the fireflies a couple of days ago. How pretty they were from a far distance. Xion remembers how they flickered in the forest area whose grass was covered by a blanket.  
The blanket! Xion begins to run from her position to the crack. She realizes that the mystery person must've been staying there. That must've been the reason why the blanket is there in the first place; otherwise, she would've remembered the blanket being there before.  
Quickly, Xion hurries over to the crack on the wall and stops to catch her breath. When she looks at the crack, she sees even more flickers of light accumulating together before entering the wall. She smiles at this weird phenomenon; she's never seen anything as odd as this.  
Once she caught her breath, Xion heads into the crack of the wall, crouching down a bit to get through the thick wall. As she continues through the oddly thick tunnel, she starts to see more and more of the other side. Gradually, her vision starts getting brighter and brighter.  
Finally she's out of the tunnel. When she gets up from her crouching position, she looks around and is struck with awe. Before her is the forested area she remembers as a child, but it seems more magical to her than before. Around her flies many flickers of light, much larger than the one she saw before coming here. All those lights float aimlessly about the forested area, spread throughout the area. It illuminates the area brightly as though it were the sun.  
Before her, on the midnight purple blanket she remembers is a small frail figure: a girl dressed in white with fair hair combed to the side. On her lap is a small notepad that she draws on with a smile on her face. She seems so content — in her own little world in this forest. It's her. The mystery figure. It really is her.  
In shock, Xion hesitantly steps ahead, breaking the area's atmosphere. Once she moves, the blonde girl quickly looks up, gasping because of the sudden present. Xion looks down at her feet then back up to the girl, locking eyes with her pure blue eyes — the same look they shared before.  
With a soft smile and a nod, a small voice comes from the blonde.  
"Welcome."


	4. Day 5-2

“Welcome,” The small blonde speaks from her place. The girl sits with her legs to the side and a notebook on her lap covered in the long, flowing white dress she wears. Her bright blue eyes, glimmering with the floating lights around them, peers straight into Xion’s other eyes. All Xion could feel is awe: she’s in awe of the entire scene — the brightly light forest at night, the fireflies, and especially the girl. At long last, after three days, Xion finally found her. She’s even more dazzled by the close appearance of the girl. No words could describe how she feels in this moment. Xion is just in this moment, sharing this moment of silence with the girl.  
Still, she needs to break this silence. After all this time of trying to find the girl, she needs to say something. It would just be awkward leaving the silence between the two for long, even if Xion is enjoying it. She fumbles, trying to find the right words to say to the girl. Sorry for bothering you in this beautiful sanctuary? Hello? No words seems to be fitting for the circumstances nor the feeling she has when she is with this girl.   
“Are you a traveller?” Xion manages to say, with hesitation. It’s a silly way to start a conversation, she thought to herself.   
In response, the blonde girl gasps, then giggles, “Yes. I wanted to come by Twilight Town for some new scenery.”  
Xion steps forward a little bit, “Scenery?” She looks from the eyes of the girl to the notebook, which the girl, in turn, covers with her hand. “Are you an artist?”  
The girl smiles softly and nods. “Yes, I travel around to practice drawing sceneries. I have to say, this town is such a beautiful place to draw.”  
Xion looks back up at the girl’s face, taking in how round the girl’s face is, how cherubic it is. “How long have you been staying?”  
The girl fidgets, “Just a couple days.”  
Xion comes closer to the girl, stopping right before she steps on the girl’s blanket. She crouches down and holds the purple blanket, feeling the soft cotton material. “And you’ve been staying here?”   
“It’s not that bad sleeping out here,” the girl mutters, “It’s a good place for drawing.”   
Xion starts feeling bad. It must have meant that the girl is rather poor if she has to stay out in the forest instead of going to a hotel. The girl’s been sleeping in the forest for three or more days. As pretty as it is here, this is no place for someone to be sleeping.   
“You know,” Xion lets go of the blanket, “The town’s also a beautiful place for drawing. Maybe you could stay in town?”  
“Oh, uh,” The girl fidgets again, moving her notebook behind her, “I-I don’t have money, so I can’t really pay for it.”  
“Oh,” Xion’s thought is correct, “Well, I mean, you could stay with me.”  
Immediately, the girl answers, “No no! It’s really okay. I’m fine staying here.”  
“But doesn’t it get cold out here at night?”  
“No, it’s really okay! I -” The girl stops in the middle of her sentence as Xion holds out her hand. The girl looks curiously yet hesitantly at Xion’s hand. Yet, Xion keeps her hand out toward her, patient to the girl’s response. She gives the blond a smile of assurance that tells the girl that things would be alright — that everything would be safe with her.   
The girl looks back at her notepad with such worry in her eyes, her brows narrow in thought. Then she holds the notebook to her chest with arm before taking Xion's hand. The girl's hand is soft but also rather cold, Xion notes. Good thing she decided to bring her home.   
She helps the girl up and keeps holding her hand, "I'm Xion, by the way."  
The girl stutters out, "N-Na..mine." Xion shakes the girl's hand firmly.  
"Well I'm glad to meet you, Namine," Xion lets go of her hand and nods, "Let's go to my house then."  
Namine nods and walks after Xion.

The walk wasn't very long to her apartment, but the walk was rather quiet. The only sounds during the walk was bugs flying around in the summer heat of the night. Xion kept trying to think of something to talk about with the girl, but she winds up all tongue tied. She tried asking Namine about her art, but Namine didn’t hear it so the silence quickly returned between the two.   
After Xion unlocks the door to her apartment, she guides Namine inside. Namine first takes note of the little couch stationed in front of the television. The hallway from the entrance to the living room is quite small — the first door in the hallway is to the bathroom. She looks through the bathroom doorway and sees another doorway into what looks like a bedroom. Passing by the hallway into the main room, she finds the kitchen to the right.   
Once she finishes looking around, she walks over to Xion, who, at the moment is placing pillows on the couch. She continues to watch until Xion is done. Xion looks over to Namine.  
“Do you need anything to eat? Drink?” Xion asks.   
“I-It’s okay. I think I just want to sleep really.” Namine gives a bashful smile. Xion nods.  
“Okay, follow me,” Xion starts heading toward the left into the bedroom.  
“Wait a second,” Namine grabs Xion’s sleeve. “I thought I was going to sleep out here.”   
Xion giggles, “Oh no. I’m the one sleeping out here. I’m letting you sleep in my bed.”  
“W-What?” Namine looks down, “That’s a little too much, isn’t it?”  
“Well, you kind of deserve it; I mean, you have been sleeping out in the forest the entire time.”  
“I — the couch is pretty fine, too.” Namine shrugs, but Xion shakes her head.   
“Trust me, I think you need the bed more than I do.” Xion guides Namine by the hand into her bedroom.   
Turning on the light, Namine finds herself dazzled by the cute room. The room is colored a soft pink color, the color of candy hearts. In the middle of the room is her bed with sheets patterned with baby blue stripes. Next to it are bookshelves with books of all kinds and little knick-knacks and stuffed animals. On the bedstand next the other side of the bed are a scented candle and a clock. When she picks up the candle and reads the label, the label reads “Strawberry and Vanilla.” A lovely smell almost fitting for the black-haired girl.   
Namine turns over to Xion, who is looking through her closet. She walks closer to Xion, who turns around and hands Namine a set of sleeping clothes. When she takes it into her hands, the clothes unfold to reveal a large sleepshirt of a pastel purple. Xion looks from the dress over to Namine, as Namine looks up to her.   
“I hope that’s alright,” Xion smiles, scratching her cheek. “I usually wear these as pajamas during the night, unless it’s winter. I could give you —”  
“It’s fine, really,” Namine looks back at the dress, “Thanks, Xion.”  
Xion feels her face heat up and stutters, “S-Sure.” She then grabs her own sleeping clothes for the night. “W-Well, I’m going to use the restroom. Freshen up and head to the couch. Good night, Namine.”  
Namine nods, “Night, Xion.” Xion gives her one last smile before closing the door behind her to the restroom.   
The black-haired girl locks the door and places her clothes on the counter. She looks in the mirror and sees how red her cheeks had become. She giggles to herself and thinks back to her guest: a sweet person, who seems far too humble. She starts thinking about plans for tomorrow, perhaps taking the girl around the town.   
She starts washing her face and brushing teeth, thinking about where she could take the girl — places an artist would love. To her that would be anywhere around town. Every little aspect of the town is beautiful enough to be captivated in a drawing, but how picky are artists when they choose sceneries? Xion couldn’t fathom what specific areas would be the best to draw.   
Then, she gets dressed and exits out of the bathroom the other way into the hall. She walks over to the switch on the wall next to the television to turn off the lights before blindingly walking over to the couch, letting herself lay across the couch.   
As she lays on the couch and stares at the ceiling, Xion imagines what the next day lies in store for her and her new friend. She imagines how the next days will be like taking Namine around town and even letting her meet Roxas and Axel. Maybe they’ll all get along and they will have adventures together around town until summer ends. They can spend the days watching sunsets, eating ice cream, and watching Struggle battles. So much more. The thought makes her so happy and excited for the next day. Eventually, she feels herself being drowsy, her eyelids growing heavy, and slowly she falls asleep. 

 

The time on the clock reads 12 AM. It’s about time that Namine heads off before Xion wakes up to a new world — one far too empty to be real: a blank space. She gets up from the queen sized bed and gets dressed back to her white dress. As much as she would like to just keep wearing that lavender sleepshirt, she needs to keep whatever is a part of this world within while she remains in her little world. It would be easy for her to take it, too, since Xion would not remember her after this day, but really, Namine wants to keep her detachment from this world. Then, she heads out toward the entrance, walking through the bathroom and into the hallway. As she leaves, she hears a sudden movement, making her freeze in place. She turns behind her to see if Xion will appear, but no, Xion is still sleeping on her couch. Once she sees that Xion is still on her couch, Namine leaves quickly out of Xion’s apartment.   
The blonde exits out of the room into an odd world — one that almost seems like a drawing in her notepad. She needs to hurry quickly if she wants to fix this. The thing about this world now is that it is easy to manipulate with her role. Namine looks side to side in the hallway of the apartment until she sees a flying light. The light looks as though it is growing as it continues to float away. Quickly, Namine dashes after the light, turning a corner and grabbing at it quickly finding herself back at her forest sanctuary. It was like going through a sort of portal. She turns back the way she came to see only the crack in the wall instead of the hallway of Xion’s apartment.   
She was back, but now, she needs to fix the memories so that Xion would not remember her. All the things that happened today should not have happened, and yet, it did. Xion shouldn’t have the ability to enter through the crack nor see her. Yet, it happened. Namine needs to fix that immediately so that Xion would forget today and all things related to Namine.   
Namine walks over to her little blanket and plops down, taking out her notepad. She turns the pages and pauses at one particular drawing. A drawing she made the day prior for today’s events. When she looks at the drawing of Xion, there is another person with her. Blonde, long hair combed to the side. White dress. It’s her. This is bad. It’s worse than she thought. Quickly, she takes out her eraser and erases herself from the drawing. How is it that she is becoming a part of Xion’s memories?  
Once she finishes erasing herself from the drawing, she flips to the next page to start the next set of drawings. Hopefully erasing is enough for Xion to forget. Then everything can go back to normal, and Namine herself can move on from this dream to another who needs help. She just has to hope and keep drawing.


	5. Day 6

Xion wakes up from the morning light, even more blinding than the day before because of the larger windows in the main room. She squints before groggily sitting up on the couch. It takes her a moment to realize that she slept on her couch and why she did so. She blinks and looks over to her bedroom: the doors still locked so Namine must be sleeping still. She shrugs and heads to the bathroom.   
When she reaches the bathroom, she notices that the door to her bedroom from the bathroom is open. She tries to remember the events of last night when she took Namine over: she remembers showing Namine her bedroom and leaving through the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Did Namine need to use the bathroom late night? She wonders, tempted to go through the bedroom door to check on her guest, but she tells herself that that would be rude — not to mention, invasion of privacy.   
Well, just a quick check in will do. Xion tries to justify herself as she takes one step into the bedroom. As she peers into the bedroom, she finds that the bed is empty. No sign of Namine anywhere. Quickly, she heads over the bed and checks it; the bed seems like no one has slept in it the night before. No trace of Namine. Not even the white dress Namine changed out of was left behind. She tries to look for the purple sleepshirt she handed to Namine the night before and it’s still neatly folded in her closet. Xion starts panicking about her missing guest. Where could she have gone? Did she leave already?   
Immediately, Xion changes her clothes to set out to find Namine again. She just didn’t want her to leave without a goodbye. It’s almost too sad for her, especially after looking for a while for Namine. She wanted to get to know her, even if she had a hard time reaching out to Namine.   
Once she changed, she dashed out of her apartment. Perhaps Namine is back to where Xion first found her. That is Xion’s first destination. If Namine winds up not being there, that would mean Xion had to go around town to find her. Again.  
However, when she has the wall to the forest in plain sight, someone steps in front of her, making Xion fall back onto the floor. Xion bites her lips at the pain of the impact, looking at who she had bumped into. She has to look far up to see the person eye-to-eye. It’s Axel.  
“What’s the rush, Xion?” Axel chuckles lightly, giving her a hand up.   
“Oh, uh,” she brushes herself, “I was just trying to find someone.”  
“Who?” The redhaired male asks, tilting his head.  
“I had a guest over last night, and I let them stay in my house, but when I woke up, they were gone,” Xion sighs, but Axel laughs, making the shorter look back up to him.  
“And you were so much in a rush that you forgot to change?” Axel points down to her clothes. Xion raises an eyebrow. Of course she changed, what does Axel mean? She looks down at her clothes and realizes: yes, she did change, but she changed into other pajamas: sweatpants and a baggy black t-shirt. Xion rubs her temples in embarrassment. “Look, you can find the person later. I’m sure they’ll be around somewhere. Let’s just get you changed.” Axel places his hands on both of Xion’s shoulder, pushing her toward her apartment. Xion couldn’t help but be pushed along. 

 

And everything is back to normal. So to speak. Once she returned back to her sanctuary, she immediately went back to working, setting up the next day and the next, attempting to wipe the memory of her away from Xion’s mind. To keep the distance between Xion and her. She stayed up until dawn to fix the entire realm before falling asleep harshly.   
When she wakes up midday, she finds her notepad resting on her lap and the holographic monitor still displaying from her notebook. Her eyes strain from the strong lighting of the afternoon, making her squint as she focuses on the screen. Slowly, she gets up into a sitting position before taking the notepad off her lap. She keeps her focus on the hologram to check if the memory is running well.   
The screen displays Xion and her friend Axel walking from Xion’s apartment. Everything seems to be going according to what she planned before. Nothing is out of place…  
Until Namine notices the expression on Xion’s face. As the two friends walk down the street, they remain silent, and Xion is left to brood on who knows what. The gentle blue eyes of the girl are glued to the ground, as the wind blows back her obsidian black hair. What she's thinking about is something Namine doesn’t know, but it concerns her all the more. After all, these memories are supposed to reflect all of Xion’s happier memories — never any time sad, so this is certainly new.   
Immediately, Namine checks her notepad. Perhaps she drew something out of line. She may have messed up some place. Looking keenly at the notepad, she could not see anything different to what she remembers drawing. Everything looks the same.   
She looks up to the screen at Xion’s solemn face. No, this is wrong, she thinks. She needs to distract Xion to make her happy.   
So she starts drawing again. 

 

Axel and Xion arrive in the front of the clocktower, waiting around for their other friend. They remain quiet under the morning light, staring down the alley, in hopes that Roxas may come strolling down any moment.  
Xion looks down at her outfit — the one Axel helped her pick. She wears black jeans and a loose faded pink crop top. She couldn’t deny Axel’s choice in clothes for her; she personally thinks it’s a cute outfit. Her only hope for the day is that the night does not come as quickly she she doesn’t freeze.   
She rubs her arms, thinking about the cold night. Then comes the thought of Namine. Did yesterday night actually happen? She could’ve sworn that she took Namine in, and let her sleep in her bed, but there is no evidence of the girl staying there. No evidence but her memory, that is. The feelings she had at that night were definitely real, but how could she think so when there’ s nothing to prove that the girl really is there? Maybe her dreams were just projecting her worries about the new visitor in the town. That’s when she realizes that maybe she should give it a rest. At least, for now.   
In the distance, she sees the blonde running in. She tells herself that she can prove whether or not that the previous day has truly happened later. Nodding to herself, she runs ahead to meet with Roxas. 

 

The dusk is approaching rapidly. Namine looks up from the screen and up into the sky. The wind is blowing harshly, making the blond shiver. She’s almost happy that the day is happening. The day was boring, sitting around quietly in the forest, watching over the memory. She became out of line because of yesterday’s event, so she has to recreate and retrieve a couple of memories to restore her progress. She even managed to draw up the next few memories for the next few days.   
Namine could easily rest now that her work is all done for a while. She could try to venture out again, and hopefully not get caught this time, but there is something that’s still bugging her is that one expression she’s never seen in all her time working: Xion’s face of sadness and concern. In her time, not one person is ever seen as sad or worried, so this emotion is certainly new. She could almost feel this new emotion brewing in herself.   
She looks over to the screen with her eyebrows scrunched up.   
“Xion,” she watches the girl wave farewell to her friends at the train station, “What are you thinking about?”

Nighttime again. It’s time to prove to herself that yesterday really happened instead of it all being a dream. Xion does have to worry about staying out too late. She hurries down from the train station towards the shopping plaza. She passes a few people — couples that are on a late night stroll with each other — even Sora, Riku, and Kairi all together happily. She smiles as she continues down toward the wall.   
She finally sees the wall and the large crack in sight. She picks up the pace toward the crack and stops right before it. She leans again and crawls through the tunnel to enter the forest. When Xion finally gets up, she hears a sudden gasp before her.   
Looking up, Xion is overwhelmed by sudden emotions. It’s her: it’s Namine. She looks exactly like the way she remembers her on the first day they met. The golden hair that reminded her of sunflower leaves. The blue eyes that was just like the morning sky. The white dress that stood out from the town. It’s her.   
Xion blushes at Namine’s appearance but approaches Namine.  
“Where’d you go this morning?” Xion chuckles.  
“I…” Namine’s eyes widen before closing her notepad, bringing up to show Xion, “I woke up early, a-and the day was really pretty, so I thought it’d be a good time to go draw.”  
“And you winded up here again?”  
“It’s really pretty here,” Namine laughs lightly, putting the notebook down. Xion walks over and crouches in front of Namine, avoiding to stand on the purple blanket again.   
“But you know,” Xion looks up through the forest leaves, “We should head back home. It’s getting late.” She reaches her hand out to the blonde.   
“Oh no,” Namine mutters, “Really, it’s okay. You helped me yesterday; I wouldn’t want to bother you again.”  
“Trust me,” Xion speaks up, “You’re not bothering me at all. I actually kind of like the company.” Another one of her sweet smiles, Namine notes about Xion. She couldn’t deny that smile, but that’s one of her issues. She figures that perhaps she’ll just do what she did earlier — leave early and fix everything.   
So again, Namine nods and grabs Xion’s hand to left her. She gives a smile to Xion and they both nod toward each other before heading off in the night to Xion’s apartment.


	6. Day 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY FOR A SUPER LATE UPDATE It's been about two weeks since I updated so I'm super late on the story progression ; ; but the good news is that this chapter's longer! And hopefully I can get in another chapter this week — but it's probably going to be shorter
> 
> Nonetheless, thanks so much for continuing to read this series! If you managed this far, I really hope you guys are enjoying it! And as you know, leave me a review! c:

The morning comes again, and Xion wakes up to the sunlight burning her eyes. The black hair girl drowsily rubs her eyes and sits up from the couch that she has actually gotten used to, after sleeping there for two days in a row. She smiles to herself, looking out the window. Imagining what the day will be like, with the large plan she thought of the night prior for her guest, she embraces the day with ease, getting up to go to the restroom and get dressed. When she reaches the bathroom, she finds that the door to the bedroom is open, like the other day. Could Namine have left again?  
Cautiously, she takes a peek into the bedroom. She slowly walks over to the bed and finds that once again, it is empty and neatly folded — no trace of the blonde anywhere. However, this time she is in no rush. She knows that Namine is probably back in the forest again.   
So, this time, she takes her time getting dressed, rather than forgetting to change at all and having her friends see her in her pajamas. After a little while of figuring out what to wear, Xion simply decides to wear a tan pair of shorts and a white t-shirt. Once she finished getting dressed, she picks up her bag and stuffs her wallet and the keys to her apartment. Then, she walks over to the kitchen and takes a small apple to eat while on her way over to the forest and another for Namine, in case she’s hungry. With that, she exits out of her apartment into town.  
She looks up at the sky and sees the bright sun slowly being blocked by incoming clouds, but deep inside, she knows that the weather will still be fine; it’s summer after all: the only thing that will ruin the day is if the sun gets any hotter (that would just mean Roxas wouldn’t be up to leaving his house). It’s still early so the streets aren’t entirely crowded with people: most of the people on the streets are old people walking around, basking in the slight warm breeze of the summer heat. As she passes them, she gives them a small smile and nod in acknowledgement of them. She would love to stop and chat with them, but she has a big plan for the day and she hoped to stick to it.   
As she takes another bite of the apple, Xion notices two people talking to each other, walking toward her: Roxas and Axel. Immediately, she runs to her right to hide behind a building while they pass. That’s odd: yesterday, they didn’t plan to meet at Xion’s house; in fact, they were going to meet at Roxas’s house, and she couldn’t have been late either — it’s only 8:30. She guesses they wanted to surprise her, but she laughs knowing that they’ll be even more surprised to not see her in her apartment.   
Xion notices that there is a small walkway around the building she is hiding behind and decides that that path’s the best way to go if she wants to avoid her friends and head to the wall. As she quietly makes her way down the narrow path, she hears someone below the walkway, in the tunnel underneath.  
“Hi, Xion!” Xion jumps from the sudden noise, and looks over the edge to see who it could have been. When she looked down, she finds Sora waving to her, but she is quick to shush him, signalling to him to lower his tone.  
“Sorry, Sora,” Xion whispers over, “I’m sort of busy.”  
“Oh, I see,” Sora nods, “Roxas and Axel went that way, if you’re looking for them.” He points toward her apartment, and she realizes that she’s correct. They were heading over to her apartment, but she still needs to go get Namine.  
“Thanks, Sora,” she quickly responds before walking toward the wall, but little did she know that Sora was walking after her.  
“Wait, where are you going?” He bickers. Xion turns around and stops in her tracks to talk more.   
“Oh, I usually go to the forest in the morning,” Xion giggles, “Sorry, Sora, but I really need to go.”   
“Oh, right!” Sora pouts, “Sorry bout bugging you!” He rubs the back of his head. “But see ya then!” And with that he walks off. Xion could only think that the conversation was odd; rather, it seemed too short, but at least, she can enter the forest now. She crouches down and walks through the wall.  
Once she makes her way through the wall, she can hear the gasp of the other girl.   
“You should really stop running out in the morning,” Xion laughs before standing up from crouching position. She looks at Namine with widen eyes. Is something wrong? Xion gulps and continues to smile, passing an apple to Namine. “Here. Not sure if you ate yet, so…”   
Namine catches the apple and looks at it confused before looking and speaking up, “Sorry. The sky was really pretty today. I wanted to draw it.”  
“In this place?” Xion looks up, seeing that the leaves of the forest almost block the entire sight of sky. Namine seems baffled as she takes her eyes away from Xion. Xion feels bad about her question, and tries to change the topic. “Will you be staying here for another day? I wanted to take you around town.”  
“Ah, really?” Namine’s head immediately perks up. “I-I mean, I could do that on my own…”  
“Oh,” Xion pouts, but she doesn’t give up, “But you wouldn’t know the special little places around town or the events in town.”  
Namine places a finger on her chin in thought, “Er, well, I’m more of a general view person. I like just getting an overview of places.”  
“But you would miss what makes this town so special!”   
“... You have a point,” Namine sighs and gets up from her seat, still holding onto her notebook with one hand. With a soft smile, she nods, “Alright. Would you show me around, please?”   
“Of course!” Xion smiles and leads Namine out, “Let’s go then.” They both crouch and walk through the wall back into town.   
Once they enter town, Xion doesn’t take a step forward. She thinks about where to take her first, as she watches Namine hesitantly eat the apple she gave her. Now that she has Namine with her, she’s blanking out on what to do with her. She conjoled far too many plans for today, but she never figured what to start with.   
Eventually, Namine takes notice of Xion’s stare, “What’s wrong?” She gets Xion’s attention.   
“Oh, sorry,” Xion averts her eyes, “I didn’t mean to stare. I was just thinking.”  
“About?”   
“My plan to take you around. I had this big plan but I’m kinda lost now with where to start.” To that, Namine giggles. Xion gets taken aback by the girl’s giggle: soft and quiet. One would have a hard time hearing it but it’s a giggle that also makes one smile. Xion shakes off her thought and returns to thinking about what to do. However, she stops when she hears Namine gasp. When she turns to Namine, she sees the blonde’s baby blue eyes focusing forward. The black hair girl turns to see what’s ahead of them and sees her friends.  
“So that’s where you ran off to, huh?” Axel smirks. He wore an orange sleeveless shirt with some brown mid-knee length shorts. His hair’s still a mess as usual, Xion notes.   
“We wanted to surprise you so we came to your house early, but you weren’t there.” Roxas rubs the back of his neck. The blonde had on a white T-shirt, splattered with black splotches, and jeans.   
“Oh!” Xion pretends to be surprised, but her tone makes it sound like she was being sarcastic. She pauses, regretting the tone, “Sorry. I left ‘cause I needed to find my guest.” She gestures to Namine, who takes a quick step back.   
Axel walks closer to Namine and leans down to look at Namine, but Namine averts her gaze.   
“So this is the person you’ve been trying to find, huh? Shy, aren’t we?” Axel stands up straight. “No need to be scared of me. I’m Axel.”  
“N-Namine,” the blonde holds her hand out. Axel shakes the blonde’s hand.  
“Shy and proper. Wow,” Axel notes, “Hope Xion’s been treating you well. I know she can be a little—” Axel brings up his index finger to his temple before circling it around: the loony sign. Roxas arches his brows and slaps Axel in the shoulder, making Axel stop his actions and step back.   
“Don’t mind him,” Roxas steps in front of Axel before shaking Namine’s hand, “I’m Roxas.”  
“Nice to meet you,” she nods. Roxas nods back then turns to Xion.  
“So what’s going on?” Roxas questions.  
“Well, I was just trying to figure out where to show her,” Xion scratches her cheek.  
“Oh, that’s tough,” Roxas sighs, “Too many fun places to go around here.”  
“Exactly! And there’s a lot of things going on around town today so I don’t know where to start.”  
“You guys are hopeless,” Axel slumps onto Roxas’s shoulder, “Here, I’ll take the lead. I know that there’s a Grandstander performance going on, if you want to go.”  
“What? Grandstander?” Roxas groans.   
“That’s one thing I wanted to show her,” Xion looks at Namine, who remains silent as she continues to finish her apple. “No other town has a Grandstander performance.”  
“Alright, then Grandstander, it is!” Axel turns around and walks ahead of them. “And we’re off!” Roxas runs after Axel to walk beside him. Xion and Namine remain in their place. Xion looks over to Namine.  
“Let’s go then,” Xion smiles. Namine simply nods and the two walk after Roxas and Axel.

 

Today’s crowd for Grandstander was miniscule, so it wasn’t hard for the four to find a place to see the whole performance well. They sat on top of the ramp next to the performance, waiting for the performance to begin. Kids are running around, taking turns hitting the ball of the Grandstander toward each other. Their parents try to take the ball away from them, worried that they might be troubling the performer. Despite the small crowd, the crowd’s relatively loud, meaning that it’s also a lively, small crowd.   
“So,” Namine starts, kicking her feet back and forth on the ledge of the ramp, “What is Grandstander?”  
“Hm?” Xion stops in her thoughts, “Oh, well, Grandstander is… So you see that ball that the kids are playing with?” She points toward the kids. Namine leans slightly to the left to look past some of the adults until she finally sees the light yellow ball. “In Grandstander, the performer is supposed to use this sword thing and whack the ball and keep it in the air.”  
Namine giggles, “And people watch them?”  
“Yeah,” Xion sheepishly grins, “It’s actually pretty fun watching them. Actually, it’s pretty tough to keep it in the air.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah. You should ask Roxas about it.” Xion cocks her head to her right to Roxas. When he hears his name from Xion, he turns around.   
“What’s that?” He didn’t hear what Xion said.   
“Isn’t Grandstander tough?” Xion questions.  
“Oh,” Roxas nods, “For sure! I keep sending the ball flying too far away from me and then I can’t get to the ball quickly enough.”  
“That seems fun,” Namine smiles.  
“Oh no, it’s frustrating,” Roxas sighs.   
“Watching Grandstander just reminds Roxas how crappy he is at it,” Axel chirps in, ruffling Roxas’s hair.  
“Hey!” Roxas swings his elbow toward Axel, but the redhead dodges. “That’s not true. It’s just boring.”  
As the two bicker, Xion laughs and Namine quietly giggles.   
Then, the crowd begins to clap, telling them that the performer has arrived. People are cheering away as the performer walks up toward the ball. Xion can hear Roxas gasping at who the performer is. Walking toward the pale yellowish ball, with the blue sword in hand, is the silver haired boy Riku. To Xion, it looks like Riku really doesn’t really want to be here,with his eyebrows arched and his blank stares as he waves to the crowd. She nudges at Namine.  
“That guy’s Riku,” Xion points, “He’s actually the best person around in Grandstander. I think his highest hit count was maybe 200 before they had to stop him.”  
“Huh, stop him?”  
“From showing off,” Roxas jeers. Xion shakes her head.   
“Don’t mind him,” Xion leans in toward Namine and whispers, “He’s got this silly rivalry with Riku. He’s just angry that he can’t beat Riku at the game.” The two look over at Roxas, who is currently being teased by Axel, seemingly making the boy all the more agitated.   
Then the performance begins. Riku walks up to the ball and hits the ball up into the air. As the ball makes the first contact with Riku’s sword, the crowd yells, “One!” Another hit. “Two! Three!” Everytime he hits it, the ball gets higher and the crowd cheers louder as Riku has to continue jumping quite a height to get to the ball. Riku’s constantly running all over the place to get to the ball fast enough to continue the counting.   
Xion and Axel count with the crowd, while Roxas and Namine remain quiet. Roxas was only bitter about this, but when Xion looked at Namine, the blonde almost seemed to be dazzled by this — amused. She takes out her drawing pad, flips to a blank page, and begins to draw. Xion stops her own counting and watches as the other sketches out the scene. The sharp strokes mixes with the rounded curves drawn by Namine. The cautious movements that the artist makes to outline the scene. Soon, as the crowd continues to cheer away up to 100, Namine’s drawing pad is filled with many different figures, including Xion, Roxas and Axel. In the drawing, Xion and Axel both look happy and Roxas is turned away from the whole event. There’s no Namine in the drawing though, Xion notes, wondering why Namine would omit herself from the scene, but she chooses not to question Namine’s choice.   
Maybe it’s just her style as an artist, Xion shrugs, starting back on the counting of the audience, only for Riku to stop at 120. Some parts of the crowd moan, but many still cheer the silver haired boy on, hoping that he would continue, but the one running the Grandstander performance announces that that’s the end of the performance, now making everyone moan. The performance should’ve continued on, but it looks like Riku was tired. As the crowd starts to dissipate, Xion, Roxas, and Axel all hop off the ramp to greet Riku (Roxas ran over). Xion notices how Namine remains seated on the ramp, staring off into the distance and gripping her notebook. The black haired girl walks back, placing a hand on Namine’s hand, making the other look toward her.   
“Come on. I’ll introduce you,” Xion moves her hand away from Namine’s, but leaves her hand out for Namine to take hold, “Riku’s pretty cool.”  
Namine looks down to her feet but takes Xion’s hand, letting herself down slowly from the ramp. The two walk slowly toward Riku, Roxas, and Axel. Axel seems to be making pleasant conversation with Riku, whereas Roxas is simply giving deathly looking glares toward the silver haired boy. As they reach closer, Riku turns his attention to Xion and Namine.   
“Hey, Xion,” Riku greets.   
“That was a pretty awesome performance,” Xion compliments. Riku lets himself smirk but stops himself, reverting that smirk to a small smile.  
“It comes with practice,” Riku rubs the back of his neck. “Or, well, after doing these performances for a long time. Not a big fan of doing it though.”  
“Then why do you do it?” Roxas groans.  
“Just quick money,” Riku huffs, “I was thinking about getting some gifts for Sora and Kairi.”  
“That’s pretty cute,” Xion smiles, “I’m sure they’d appreciate it.” Riku smiles back and nods.   
“And who’s your friend?” Riku looks over at Namine.  
“This is Namine,” Xion rubs Namine’s back, “She’s a visiting artist. I’m taking her around town so she could get some places to draw.”   
“How are you liking it here?” Riku asks.  
“Oh,” Namine gets taken aback, “It’s a really cute town. Very small, but very warm. It’s a nice place to sketch.”  
“Glad to hear,” Riku looks over to Xion, “Maybe Sora and Kairi would want to help take her around.”  
“Yeah, maybe,” Xion nods, “I’ll ask them when I see them.” Hopefully, Xion thinks to herself.   
Riku simply nods and looks up at the sky; the sun’s still bright out and the clouds are quickly rolling over. “Well, I have to head back to them, so I’ll see you guys around.” With that, Riku heads off. Roxas looks like he wants to say something back at Riku, but he quickly hushes himself up, biting his lower lip and looking down. Axel rolls his eyes and slaps the dirty blonde’s back.  
“So how’d you like that, Namine?” Axel turns to Namine.   
“It was… pretty nice,” Namine blinks.   
“Alright!” Axel cheers, “So we’re off to a good start. Any ideas of what to do next, Xion?”  
“Oh no,” Xion lowers her head in defeat, “Can’t think of any.”  
“Then, it’s up to me again, huh?” Axel rubs the back of his head. “But hey, I’m good with last minute plans, so let’s go.” The redhead starts heading off again and the other three follow quietly. 

 

After a long day of travelling around just one section of town and meeting the people of the town (the four did wind up meeting Riku, Sora, and Kairi, but the three were in the middle of a date, so the four didn’t want to bug them any longer), now the four sit with Hayner, Pence, and Olette — a trio they had met while buying some lunch. All seven of them spent the other half of the day looking around town, buying little souvenirs, and making jokes about each other. It was a time bursting with all kinds of energy, and it was refreshing to Xion. Something new. A sort of adventure for her and she enjoyed every minute of it, and it seemed to her that Namine enjoyed it, too, as the girl proceeded to draw out every moment they had.   
Now the seven of them hang around the empty Struggle arena. Hayner, Roxas, and Axel are all trying to do some skateboard tricks while Olette, Pence, Namine, and Xion sit on a bench, watching their friends fail — well, Axel and Hayner. Roxas, on the other hand, is perfecting every single skateboard trick he does.   
It all started when Hayner took out his skateboard from his group’s little hangout place, saying that he’s been practicing. Roxas immediately was curious and wanted to see, so they all walked over to the Struggle arena to try out some tricks. Of course, being new to the whole experience, Hayner fell over a couple of times. So, Roxas tried to teach Hayner some new tricks, only embarrassing Hayner. How Axel winded up in this mess was because of his dismissal of skateboarding. “It’s just a waste of time.” “It’s easy.” Roxas and Hayner both then challenged Axel to try it out; sure enough, the redhead fell over quickly, trying to move on the board.   
Now, here they are: the three trying to pull off the greatest tricks and the other four laughing away on the bench.   
Except for one. Namine doesn’t laugh as the three try to skateboard. All she does is look up once in awhile from her sketchbook and continues to sketch. All with a small smile on her face.  
Xion picks up on this, too, just as she did during the past day, but she didn’t want to stop the artist while she is at work. All she can do is watch in awe as she sees Namine drawing away with a lovely smile on her face and a slight blush from the heat. Seeing Namine enjoying herself makes Xion blush, too. How someone can be so gentle and quiet, lost in their own little world as the real world continues to move around them. It was as though Namine was back in her little forest area. No one could burst her little bubble, and Xion almost loved it. She almost wants to join the blonde in her little world — to share the experience of that small world, but of course, all she can do now is just watch the girl draw and draw.   
Xion smiles, changing her attention from the blonde’s smiling face to the blonde’s sketchpad. Already she had drawn Olette, Pence, and her, sitting on the bench, and currently she is drawing out Roxas leaping on his skateboard; but no sign of Namine. Just like all her other drawings during the day, she omits herself from her own drawing. Xion pouts, wondering why this is so, why a girl ever so beautiful would keep herself out of her drawing, but it couldn’t be helped. It was her style and she didn’t just want to tease the girl’s style.   
Then, she turns away from the girl and back to the events before her: of Axel trying to get on the skateboard without flat on his face (again), of Roxas shaking his head as he has to teach them again on how to do it, of Hayner whining about Axel possibly breaking his skateboard, and of Pence and Olette laughing loudly. With a big sigh, Xion turns toward Olette and begins conversation. By the end of the day, all six of them were laughing away without a care in the world — a shared little world.


	7. Day 7-2

The end of the day again, and somehow Namine let herself be taken to Xion’s house again. The black haired girl kept offering Namine a place to stay, and while Namine could easily say no and say that she could just stay at a hotel or how she loves camping out in the forest, she just couldn’t take herself away from Xion. For the first time ever since she had this job of letting people live in these happy memories, Namine made contact with a person, and that person showed her the beauties that come with their life.   
Reflecting on the day, Namine feels an elated sensation: the joyful cheers throughout the day and the laughs that melted away any sort of worry. The many friends in town and the high energy of the town itself. A carefree life filled with so much joy.   
It’s no wonder that Xion holds these memories close to her, Namine thinks. She gets up from the bed, when she sees that the clock on the bedstand reads midnight. She moves slowly to get up, gradually taking off the bed sheets on her and letting her legs dangle off the bedside. She wonders if she really felt happiness and joy when she was with Xion and her friends. She definitely did well keeping quiet and distant, but the energy of the town was strong to Namine. She knows that she cannot partake in many activities around town — that she cannot grow a connection to the town, but somehow, a certain relationship seems to be growing enough that it is apparent in her everyday life.   
As Namine gets up to leave, she feels a sudden heavy feeling weigh on her: guilt. It’s almost new to her. All she has ever really felt in her time doing this job is joy to help these people, but this is the first time she has ever felt guilt. She only knows some ideas about guilt based on some memories from past people, but to feel it herself is strange. It’s like something was eating away at her heart or something’s burning harshly in her chest. She absolutely didn’t like it. I need to stop this right now, Namine exits the apartment.   
Even as she left Xion in her apartment, Namine still had that urging feeling of guilt. She wanted it to go away. She’s only been here for about a week and yet, somehow there is a sort of mess up that she’s been working hard to fix, but nothing. Nothing changed. No matter how many times she’s tried to disconnect herself from the world the way she used to and by resetting memories, Namine somehow couldn’t get Xion to forget her and it was terrible.   
As she made a beeline to her little forest sanctuary filled with the glowing lights, Namine continued to be in her thoughts about Xion. Why is it that Xion keeps returning to her? Why is it that Xion continues to remember her? Why is Xion so interested in her? Namine shakes her head. It’s such an odd occurrence, but it couldn’t be helped. All she needs to do now is to fix the problem…but how?  
Once she enters the forest, she plops herself down on her blanket and lays down on her back in thought as she holds the notebook that governs Xion’s memories high above her, staring at the pages filled with scenes. As she looks at every memory, the gross feeling of guilt replaces the feeling of joy that she once felt by drawing these out and looking back at them. The old memories — the ones she had drawn before this entire mess — suddenly began to make her feel sad, and it was worse when she flipped to the recent memories. In these new memories, it is just like what happened with the first memory that played with Namine first met Xion. In every new memory was a new figure that did not belong: herself.   
Namine sits up and bites her lower lip. She knows that she cannot let this continue. She cannot allow herself to be a part of this world, nor a part of these memories. She knows she’s enjoying every single one of these memories, but she has to stop. She has to stop herself from giving in to connecting; otherwise, it’ll just be terrible for her to move on to another person’s memory.   
She takes out an eraser to start erasing herself from each page, but no matter how hard she rubs the pink eraser against the colored pages, nothing would go away. She kept trying, but she only felt more frustration as all her work amounted to nothing. Eventually, Namine stops trying and panics about how this is possible. Why isn’t anything erasing? It was erasing just fine the first day, but now it wouldn’t.   
Namine starts choking up and tears make their way down her cheeks. Overwhelmed with emotions, she covers her face and cries into the palm of her hands. What can she do? She’s tainted these memories and there is no way of fixing these memories, leaving her with a limited amount of happy memories left for Xion to live through. Sure, it’s easy enough to recycle through the memories for Xion, but when she just lost a couple of the memories, that means that the chances of memories used the previous day may be used too soon that Xion may suspect something — if something isn’t right, which is the case. Because Xion seems to be breaking some rules in her memories, that means that she may suspect why the memories seem too familiar — a sort of deja vu feeling. Namine couldn’t risk that. Recycling memories over and over again can only be possible if Namine meets a certain quota of happiness and oblivion for Xion. As of now, all the progress she has made is slowly regressing.   
However, nothing can help these memories now that they’ve been tempting by her own being. She cautiously takes hold of the notebook and looking at the colored pages, watching how some of her tears land on the pages. Even her tears wouldn’t ruin the pages. She traces her fingers on the metal spirals of the notebook and suddenly she has an idea of how to fix this mess. I just need to get away from all this, the blonde thinks to herself. Then, everything will be alright. Everything will go back to the way it is. I just have to forget today. She begins to tear out the pages of her normal sketchbook.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, sorry this chapter is rather short; I thought maybe I should just follow up last chapter with a short chapter back on Namine since most of the chapters have been focusing on Xion's thoughts. However, I hope you still enjoyed this chapter all the same! Thanks again for reading!


	8. Day 8

Again Xion wakes to the morning sun, as she lies on the couch that she has grown rather used to after these past days. She feels excited again for today’s adventures, especially after yesterday’s events. Yesterday, though, Namine remained silent, deep down, Xion knew that Namine did, in fact, love the day. Otherwise, why would she draw out what they all did? Maybe today will be different. Maybe today will be a chance to learn more about Namine and to see her at work with her art. Maybe a chance to see Namine happy again and to build their friendship before Namine goes away to a new place. The thought only makes Xion feel sad, but she turns her attention back on the time now. She only wonders, though, if Namine is here this time, considering the many times Namine had left in the morning.   
With that, Xion gets up from the couch and goes through the bathroom to her room. She slowly opens the door to her room, hoping that if Namine is there that the sound of the door creaking would not awake her. Peeking her head through the crack of the door, she turns to the left to see that once again, the bed is empty. Again the bed sheets are neatly folded. She opens the door wide as she takes a step in. She checks her shelves to see that the clothes she gave Namine to wear to sleep is also neatly folded on the shelf. As expected, Xion shrugs. The mysteries of Namine’s disappearance still fathoms Xion, but it is almost part of her daily routine now. Because Namine is gone, she can only assume that the blonde headed out to the forest again. So, Xion stops her worries and begins getting dressed for the day.   
Once she was dressed, Xion takes a couple of apples and puts them in her bag before exiting out of her apartment. As she walks over to the elevator, she hears people talking in their apartments. To her, it was weird, considering the past few days, Xion wakes up the same time and no one is up. She shrugs, thinking that maybe the people awake now may have some big plans for the day, just like her. Then, she enters the elevator.   
After exiting the elevator, she hears a sudden greeting from the lobby’s counter.   
“Morning!” It’s one of the building owner’s adoptive sons, not to mention Roxas’s cousin, Ventus. With his brother, sister, and dad, Ventus manages the apartment buildings. The family of four also live in the building, on the top floor. Xion always thought that Ventus is sweet and funny, and she often talks to him whenever she sees him. Many times, Xion would actually visit the family on the top floor for dinner, watch some movie, or play video games.   
But now wasn’t really the time. She only wanted to see Namine. “Sorry, Ven, I’m sort of in a rush.”  
“What for? It’s Saturday!” Ventus leans toward her, elbow on the wooden lobby counter and hand resting under his chin. His blue eyes gaze carefully at Xion’s movement and his lazy lopsided smile only makes Xion want to do stop because of the casualness of the situation, but she knew definitely had to go now that it’s too late into the day.  
“I have to go look for my friend,” Xion averts her gaze toward the door. “She always runs out on me every morning.”  
“You mean she’s been staying here?” Ventus cocks an eyebrow.  
“Yeah,” Xion mutters, “Have you seen her?”   
“Nope,” Ventus shakes his head but then taps his finger on the counter, “Well, maybe. What does she look like? Maybe I could go help you.” He yawns.   
“Um, let’s see,” Xion covers her mouth in thought, “Well, she’s about as tall as I am. She has blonde hair that she puts to the side and she has blue eyes.”   
“Oh yeah! You mean Larxene?” Ventus yawns.  
“She doesn’t put her hair to the side, does she?” Xion wonders.  
“Oh, uh,” Ventus takes out the book of residents, but realizes, “Oh right, your friend’s been staying with you… So they don’t live here.” Xion nods. “Okay, then I don’t think I have. Or maybe I fell asleep on the job… Whoops.”  
Xion giggles, “It’s fine. I think I have an idea where she is anyways.”   
Ventus checks his watch before turning back to Xion, “Hey, I’ll come with you. Terra’s supposed to come down any second now to take over.” He stretches his arms up in the air before walking out from behind the counter, but Xion stops him.  
“No really, it’s fine, Ven,” She shakes her head before pointing to her eyes. “You’ve sort of got bags under your eyes.”  
“Huh? I do?” Ventus runs over to the lobby bathrooms to check in the mirrors. It almost takes a minute before Xion hears Ventus again from the bathroom, “Oh my god, I do!” He comes rushing out and grabs Xion’s shoulders. “Alright, but you’ll fine on your own then?”   
Thrown off by Ventus’s energy, despite how tired he looks, Xion can only laugh and nod. “I’ll be fine. The town’s not dangerous, Ven.”   
“Aw, alright,” Ventus pats Xion’s head before turning around and walking toward the elevators, “Then off to sleep, I go!”  
“Sweet dreams,” Xion waves before walking toward the sliding glass doors.  
When she exits, she finds that almost everyone in town is out and about. How weird. She checks her phone’s time to see that it’s 10 in the morning. She had slept in, surprisingly. Usually she wakes up rather early, around 8, and then will be out of the house around 9. Was there something going on in town? She ponders.   
As soon as she walks down the platform from the entrance, Xion is submerged into the big crowd that walks almost aimlessly. Different kinds of people roaming here and there: old couples together, adults running quickly to their shops, parents walking with their children to see some events of the day or to go buy some food, and some teenagers cheering along with their friends and having a blast. It was hard to maneuver around the people, as they constantly blocked the path over the wall, regardless of how close the wall is to her apartment. She is in a rush. Xion tries to keep calm as she walks through the groups of people clumped together on the street. People begin to push against her as they make their way elsewhere.   
When she thought she was at the wall, she winded up going in the wrong direction, winding up at the alleyway she had used before to avoid Axel and Roxas the other day. To her, it was a perfect way to get back on track, as no one else crowded the alley. She headed again into the crowd to try again to get to the wall. Again, she is pushed and shoved in different directions, but this time, she was desperate to get to the wall. She felt fear weigh her down with the idea that perhaps she is too late, but she needed to see if that is true. She just had to.   
Finally, she manages to get to the wall. She pauses for a moment to close her eyes and take deep breaths from walking around in the crowd. She isn’t good with crowds. As much as she loves people, when she just doesn’t love having all of them so close to her all at once.  
Xion takes one last deep breath and opens her eyes to see the wall, but she freezes up again. Her shoulders slump and her bag slowly falls from her arm. Before her, where the wall stands, is… Nothing. It’s nothing but the wall. Without the hole. The tunnel that grants her the ability to travel over to the nearby forest. The tunnel that she and Roxas used to go through as a kid. The tunnel that let her see Namine in the morning.   
Wearily, she takes steps forward toward the wall. Reaching out to the wall, Xion feels where the hole used to be to see if this really is true. All concrete. All bricked up. The tunnel truly is gone. She now couldn’t help but feel fear. Fear and sorrow. Does that mean Namine may have left? She continues to feel the surface of the wall that seems so seamless that she wonders if the tunnel was real to begin with. How can this be? She steps back from the wall and continues to stare at the wall with wide eyes. All she wants to do is cry because all her plans to take Namine out and the friendship that she wanted to mend with Namine are obliterated so quickly before her eyes. Filled with fear, sorrow, and regret, Xion begins to tear up and sniffle.   
“Xion…?” Can it be? She turns around and sees Axel and Roxas standing there. Roxas walks up to her. “What happened?”  
“No-nothing,” Xion wipes her eyes and shakes her head. “Just forget it.”   
“Are you sure?” Roxas bickers, “We’re your friends. You can trust us.” But she doesn’t speak anymore. Axel places a hand on Roxas’s shoulder and shakes his head, signalling that they shouldn’t bother her with it. Roxas looks back at Xion hesitantly but nods in Axel’s direction before Axel takes his turn to talk to Xion. He bends down to look at Xion eye to eye.   
“Hey, let’s go get some ice cream, alright?” Axel softens his usual tone. Xion simply nods, making the three walk off to the ice cream stand.   
That day, the three kept quiet to themselves. No words were spoken to each other as they walked off from the ice cream stand to their usual spot up on the clocktower. Roxas tried many times to talk to Xion, but Xion was reluctant to speak. All she kept her mind on was the events of the morning. She kept replaying the days before with Namine: how much fun they had yesterday; how Namine was when Xion first talked to her; how she first saw Namine; and how she would enter through the tunnel to Namine’s little sanctuary. Now, that tunnel is gone; she can no longer go to that pretty forest area nor does she know where Namine could be. Did Namine leave already without saying goodbye? Was it not fun for Namine anymore?   
Silently, Xion begins to cry. All Roxas and Axel can do is rub her back while Xion crys away and tries to hush herself by eating her ice cream, watching the sun set red on the horizon.


	9. Day 13~15

Day 13

It’s been five days. Xion’s been counting. And everyday since then, she continues to leave her apartment and head to the wall, only to find that the wall is sealed up. Yet, the next day she checks again anyways, hoping that maybe the day prior was only a dream. Again, her friends find her by the wall, taking her away into the day’s business, leaving her no time to spare to check elsewhere. It almost seems like everything was back to normal — normal as in the days before Xion met Namine. Everybody seemed to have already forgotten Namine, and it almost hurt Xion because to Xion, it was like she had made a new friend and she lost them too quickly. She wanted to make sure that the days she spent with Namine was real, but she refrained herself from asking her friends if it were so, knowing that it would be a silly question to ask — especially out of the blue. She has already tried carrying on with everybody else, smiling along with everyone, but by the end of the day, her smile slips and her mind was only left to one thing again: Namine.   
Xion stops her thoughts. Again, she thinks to herself. Again, I’m thinking about Namine, but why? She should’ve gotten over Namine; she knows that that would be for the best, but she just couldn’t shake the feeling away. Deep inside, she feels that she just couldn’t pretend those days didn’t happen. It was like something was tugging at her — something incomprehensible was tugging away at her and telling her that she couldn’t simply forget. It’s a sinking feeling in her stomach, and she couldn’t understand how and why. Something in her mind tells her that, perhaps, Namine is still around in Twilight Town; she just isn’t sure where. And that feeling has been sitting with her these past five days, and that’s why she just couldn’t shake away the memories of Namine, even if the others could easily forget.   
She tries again to forget by turning her attention away from her thoughts and to the scenery playing out before her: here, she sits on a train, waiting for her stop in the next part of town, where most residents lived, aside from the three. She, Axel, and Roxas all were invited over to Sora’s birthday party at his house. At first, she didn’t want to go, but then she realized that maybe it might help her ease on the sad thoughts — that and Roxas and Axel have been pushing her, both knowing how sad she’s been lately. So here she is, sitting with her two friends on both sides of her, listening to Axel and Roxas talk away. She isn’t sure what it is they’re talking about because she’s been spacing out for who knows how long, but Roxas looks like he’s trying to hold in his laughter, biting down on his lips and puffing his cheeks out while Axel is trying to hush the other. Though she isn’t apparent in this scene, she can feel the joy of her two friends, trying to take in the joy they feel and push away the sad feelings she had just a moment ago. At least, for now, she has to pretend the feelings weren’t there.   
As Xion tries to speak up, an announcement turns on, signalling that they will be arriving shortly at their stop. The three get up from their seat and wait toward the door. Gradually, the train comes to halt, making people shift in their positions; Roxas falls on Xion, which pushes Axel over. Axel looks back, smirks, and pushes backwards so that Xion and Roxas rock back on their heels. In the middle of all this, Xion is just being pushed back and forth by Roxas and Axel until she decides to push both of them at the same time, resulting in Axel ruffling her hair and Roxas punching her in the arm. The trio leave the train station laughing away; at least, that’s keeping her spirits up.   
It takes them five minutes to walk over to Sora’s house and even before they reach his house, they can hear the loud, cheerful atmosphere of his party. Xion figures, considering the way Sora is. Of course, it must be something big. Sure enough, as they reach the front of his house there’s large balloons scattered — even blown away by the wind — everywhere in front of the door in what seems to be a poor attempt of an entranceway. From the frosted glass window of the wooden door, there’s all kinds of blurred colors flashing away. Lights. People. Who knows. All Xion knows is that there’s a lot of people laughing and shouting beyond this door: a lively environment, just like Sora. It makes her smile at how friendly the birthday boy is and how open he is.   
As Axel knocks on the door, Xion starts wondering how many people there are in the house and who Sora invited. He probably would invite the entire town, right? Xion thinks to herself. Maybe Namine’s here, too! But Xion’s quick to shake the thought away. Not again. I should stop thinking about Namine… but I just can’t shake that feeling that maybe she’s still around —   
“Surprise!” Suddenly pieces of colored paper is being blown around her and even onto her. As the confetti fall from her sight, she sees a gleeful Sora, holding a bright pink confetti popper, one hand still holding onto the string. On top of his head is a plastic yellow crown, which he seems to be a little too overgrown for. Of course, there is his unforgettably big toothy grin.   
“God!” Roxas gasps and tries to slap Sora, only for Sora to dodge quickly. “Thanks for scaring me!” Sora could only laugh away at Roxas’s exclamation.  
“Wow,” Axel butts in, “You should’ve seen your face, Roxas. “ The redhead gasps and imitates Roxas by jumping back. Roxas blushes furiously and tries to slap Axel but again fails to do so.   
“Haha, sorry, Roxas,” Sora smiles sheepishly, holding his arms behind his back and looking away, “Just wanted to get you guys excited! Wasn’t that awesome?”  
As Roxas groans and rubs his face, Xion gives him a slight smile, “It was pretty awesome.”  
“See?” Sora points at Xion and puts his arm around Xion’s shoulder. “Xion knows how to get her party on!” He drags Xion over to the main room. Behind them, Axel and Roxas follow; Roxas continuously groaning as Axel teased him.   
In the main room sits a fairly large amount of people. In one corner sits Riku and Kairi talking with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. In the middle plays some of the town’s little kids, while on the couch their parents sit watching them play. Then there’s the folks that own Xion’s apartment complex: Eraqus, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus. There’s even some of the police force around, too, like Even, Ienzo, and Aeleus, surprisingly. Xion’s almost baffled by the large amount of people here at the same time, she understands. It’s hard not to invite everyone when you know everyone in town. She doesn’t mind though. It makes the scene livelier and perfect for a birthday party.  
“Here,” Sora turns Xion to look at him, as he takes one of the shiny birthday hats from the couch and places it on Xion’s head. Then, he turns to place one on Axel and Roxas. Once he finished, he puffs out his chest in pride, “Now we’re all in the spirit!”  
“A little too spirited, don’t you think?” Roxas slowly takes the hat off, but Sora’s quick to put it back on the blonde. The brown-haired boy points to his mouth with both hands and smiles.  
“Big smiles, Roxas,” Sora puts his hand in his pocket and shouts, “Alrighty! Now that everyone’s here, let the partying begin!” He pulls out another confetti popper and lets confetti fly. Hopefully this will be fun, Xion notes and smiles to herself.

 

...At least from her thoughts, it seemed so. Half an hour into the party, she talks with a large crowd of people filled with so much energy, and eventually she starts getting tired withdrawing into her own subconscious. No matter how much she tries to listen to everybody speak, she just couldn’t make herself listen. Her mind is left to wander, and where else would it wander off to put to the little forest again? Where Namine used to be.   
As the party continues on around her, the black haired girl sits at the kitchen table, looking onward and thinking away. She imagines where Namine could be. If Namine is all right. If perhaps something bad happened to Namine. And why she has this feeling inside her that makes her worry about Namine as well. She ponders if the reason why she is so attached to Namine is because she’s a tourist or that she’s an artist… or is it her appearance that captivates Xion?   
Immediately she shakes her head at the thought and feels her cheeks burning. Xion rubs her cheeks, as though it would help make the blush go away. She tries to focus on something else around her but no one was around in the kitchen, so she continues to sit and think about Namine, more worried now than before. Just imagining what troubles that the blonde may be in while she herself sits alone in this grease smelling kitchen makes her anxious. She lays her head down and closes her eyes as people shuffle around and talk.  
Then comes a tap on her shoulder. Slowly, Xion raises her head and turns around to see who needed her. Standing with worry clouding his eyes and a weak smile is Sora.  
“Hey, you okay?” Sora asks, but Xion doesn’t respond. She’s too busy thinking about what the blonde girl may be up to now. Maybe she’s being obsessive over this. She feels a growing sickness overwhelm her — the kind that makes you feel like your insides have twisted and is squeezing so tightly. “You disappeared on us” Sora speaks a little louder this time.   
No response again. It’s not that Xion didn’t hear but how can she explain her worry? It’s almost pathetic to be worrying about someone right now, right? If anything, she should be enjoying right now with her other friends. She wanted to tell Sora that, but at the same time, she knows it’s merely her own problem; she has to deal with it on her own.   
After a fair amount of time passing between the two, Xion looks down and slurs, “I’m fine.” Sora moves closer and embraces Xion in a warm hug. Even so, Xion’s eyes are lowered in thought. She knows she’s here in this embrace, feeling Sora’s warm presence, but she can’t help but let her mind wander elsewhere.   
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it,” Sora pats Xion’s back before letting go, letting his hands rest on her shoulders. Looking into her eyes, he chirps, “Hey, maybe some cake will cheer you up! How ‘bout it, Xion?”   
Xion weakly smiles, continuing to avert Sora’s gaze, “It’s fine. Really, Sora. I guess I’m just not feeling very well.”  
Sora pouts and sighs, but he seems to understand, giving Xion a soft smile, “If you’re not feeling well, you should probably go home then.”  
“Oh no, but —”   
“It’s fine! Don’t worry!” He waves his hand in front of his face. “Just take care of yourself, okay, Xion?”  
Xion plays with the option for a bit. Perhaps what she really needs is some time on her own.   
She nods at Sora and stands up. Quietly, she thanks him for letting her go and finds the exit out of his house, avoiding any further conversation with others. She closes the door behind her and walks away from the balloon decorated entrance off to the train station.  
While she walks away from the buildings and toward Sunset Hill, Xion hears quick steps of someone running behind her. I better get out of the way, she thought, moving toward the side as the steps grow closer and closer, only for it to slow down the moment it is close to Xion.  
“Xion,” It’s Roxas. Did he see her leaving the party? He must’ve been worried.  
“Hey, Roxas,” Xion nods. She didn’t mean to sound distant. She was trying to sound like her usual tone: without the worries and nervousness that troubles her. Her attempt to do so only results in her sounding all the more tired and distant. It’s quiet again, with only the sounds of people in the distance and the continuous steps they take.   
It was a while before Roxas breaks the silence, “Why’d you leave the party?”   
Xion shakes her head, “I just wasn’t feeling very up for it. Sorry.”  
“Don’t worry about it,” Roxas taps Xion’s shoulder so they stop and turn toward each other. “But you seem really off. Something bugging you?”  
It’s the question again. She really doesn’t want to bug people with her own problem, but at the same time, the black haired girl knows that it’d be better to just say what’s on her mind. She knows she can trust Roxas; after all, they’ve been childhood friends. By now, Roxas knows when Xion’s troubled… and he has grown used to the habit of constantly asking if she’s really okay, which is then followed by Roxas attempting to ease Xion’s worries.   
“Lately…” Xion rubs her arms. She chooses to tell him, “I’ve just been feeling like everyone’s forgetting.”  
“Forgetting?”  
“About Namine,” Xion sighs, staring out toward the distant rolling green hills from the path she and Roxas are on, “We made so many memories with her for the past few days that all of a sudden, when she’s out of our lives, we almost forget about her. All of a sudden she doesn’t exist. I mean…”  
The silence lingers between the two. She doesn’t want to look at Roxas while she talks, gripping the one of the wooden poles that line the path. Xion lowers her head and turns to sit against the pole, covering her face with her hands. “It just seems like everyone’s moving on so quickly, and I just can’t let go. I want to. I’ve been trying… but there’s still something in me that’s telling me to not let go. And think that maybe she’s still around. I’m just...worried about her.”  
Roxas doesn’t speak. Xion feels him standing before her, but he doesn’t respond to what she said. Was he angry at her for not moving on? Was he thinking that her thoughts were merely selfish? What was he thinking at that moment?   
“It’s fine,” Xion rubs her face and averts her eyes from his, “I think I’m just going to head home. See ya, Roxas.” She walks off, not wanting to talk anymore, and she listens to see if Roxas would try to talk to her again, but nothing. It’s only her footsteps against the graveled path that makes a sound. It’s only her that walks along the road toward Sunset Hill.  
Was it wrong to tell him? Doubt starts to cloud her mind. Maybe I should’ve just kept pretending things were okay. Maybe this is stupid to worry about. After all, she only knew Namine for about five days, right? Maybe she is being obsessive over someone she just met, but her mind is telling her that somehow Namine is still here in the town. Somewhere. Maybe Namine just doesn’t like her. Maybe Namine absolutely hated her. That’s why she barely spoke a word to her. But why would Namine always agree to go with Xion to her apartment.Her mind is wrecking over itself with doubt, questions, answers, and repeat.   
Overwhelmed, tears begin to flow again from her eyes. Less than before but the feelings she had the first time Namine disappeared remain. A loss and the feeling of being lost made it hard for her to focus on anything else around her. She tries to rub her eyes with her hands to stop her tears from flowing, but she couldn’t stop it.   
But she stops in her path as she reaches Sunset Hill. She can hear people cheering away ahead of her in town, but that only makes her feel bad for walking by. She doesn’t want people to worry about the way she feels at the moment. She just wants to be alone. Then she thinks that it would be better to just wait out the crowd for a little bit, taking a turn up the path to Sunset Hill.  
Surprisingly, Sunset Hill is empty. The cliff itself is barren, with only patches of grass covering here and there. A lone bench sits before the edge of the cliff next to the small model of the train clocktower, watching as the trains leave town and the small town below.   
Xion decides to sit at the bench. At least then, she could just relax for a little bit — sort out her thoughts, feelings, and perhaps move on. As she sits, curling up to one side of the bench, she realizes that this is the first time she really spent time alone in the past days. Every day, she was always with others, and by the end of the day, she simply showers, gets dressed, and goes to bed thinking about the worries within her.   
She takes a deep breath, taking in the free, cold air, closing her eyes and keeping her mind away from the issue for a moment. Just simply thinking about this moment now. As she opens her eyes, she takes in how green the hills are before her. She thinks about the sound of the train passing by in the distance. The lights that are beginning to flicker on in the town as the sun begins to turn red behind the hills.   
Then suddenly, she remembers the days she spent with Namine again. She remembers the day that she and Namine hung out with Olette and Pence as Hayner, Axel, and Roxas kept bickering about skateboarding. The day that they all sat together on a bench like the one she sits on now just laughing away with the three. She remembers watching Namine at work on her notepad, sketching away the event that unfolded before them. How focused Namine was in that moment as the sun fell gradually for the moon to rise.  
Stop. Stop. She keeps telling herself but more memories begin to come up in her mind. There was no helping these thoughts, is there? At the end of all these thoughts, she feels deep inside, an unfathomable belief, that Namine really is here somewhere, and she really needs to go to her. Even when Namine may hate her for unclear reasons. She just felt like she had to.   
She sits on the bench, staring out toward the hills, thinking about what is it that she can do to stop this feeling. To fight this feeling victoriously and move on with her life, knowing that Namine is fine on her own and that she can carry on. She continues to sit there, thinking until the stars begin to twinkle in the darkened sky. The moon is nowhere to be seen but the stars remain.   
Then there’s footsteps. Heavy footsteps. Xion stays still in her place. She doesn’t want to bring attention to herself. She’ll just be over here while that person does whatever it is they came up here to do.   
Even as she sits still on the bench, the person moves forward, closer to the bench. Xion turns away as she hears the person walk around to take a seat on the other side of the bench. Now, it’s just them, the silence of the night, and the stars that shine above them.   
“Nice night, huh?” A light voice speaks out. The person sounds like they’re around her age. She recognizes the voice and greets them.  
“Hey, Ven,” She says weakly. She turns to the male quickly, noting his usual messy hair and his small smile.   
“What’s up?” Ven nods.   
“Just… Wanted to look at the stars,” Xion shrugs.  
“All the way out here?” Ven asks, chuckling. “I mean, it is a pretty good spot to see the stars.”  
“Is that why you’re over here?”  
“Yeah,” Ventus crosses his legs on the bench, “I always love coming out here to watch the stars before my shift. It’s still Terra’s shift right now.”  
“Oh.”  
“And Aqua wanted to switch with me today since she saw how tired I was the other day. Remember?”  
“Mhm.”  
“So, now I have way more time to stay out here,” Ventus places both hands clasped against the back of his head. “Didn’t you guys go out for a party?”  
“Yeah.”  
“How was it?”   
“It was alright,” Xion sighs.   
“Oh yea, it’s Sora’s party, right?” Xion nods at Ventus’s question. “Did he pull any pranks?”  
“Huh?” Xion is baffled by the question. A prank?  
“You know, his usual birthday prank?” Ven pulls his legs in tighter. “Don’t you know?”  
“Not really.”  
“Oh!” Ventus clasps his hands together, “So Sora always likes to pull pranks on people for his birthday. One time, when we went there, he had this thing set up so the first person to walk into the kitchen would get pied.”  
Xion gives out a small giggle, making Ventus grin, too.   
“And get this!” The male starts waving his hands around, “It was Terra who walked into the trap! He got banana cream all over his face and hair it was so gross to clean out! Yummy but gross.”  
At this point, Xion’s laughing away at Ventus’s story. So simple but such a funny thing to imagine. The stoic Terra getting pie thrown into his face. She feels herself being a little happier, but she still feels a sort of linger.   
As Xion’s laughter dies down, Ven pats Xion’s back. “How bout we head home, okay?”  
“Sure,” Xion smiles.   
“But!” Ven raises a finger, “You gotta tell me how I can help ya.”  
“Help?”  
Ventus points at his own face, “You’re looking too down for someone who just got out from a party.”  
“Oh,” Xion touches her cheeks.  
The blonde shakes his head, “We can’t have a sad Xion. Come on,” He gets off the bench, “We can talk about it on our way there. Maybe I can help you, all right?”  
Xion nods. She’s in a better mood now, feeling a lighter in emotions than before with Roxas. She feels bad for the way she was with Roxas; it was all just bad timing. And maybe since Ventus is helping her, she can find some peace of mind. Just talking out the feelings might help.   
That night, on their way over to the train station, she told him everything about Namine. From the first day she saw her and the day she first disappeared. How she’s been feeling throughout, and Ven simply listened. Afterwards, he suggested that tomorrow the both of them could look around; see if maybe Namine really is still in Twilight Town. That night, Xion went to sleep excited for the next day. An excitement she hasn’t felt in a little while. 

 

Day 14

She’s already out the door. She’s running down the halls and getting into the elevator, feet tapping away as she impatiently waits for the elevator to move down. A ding and she’s running out of the elevator to the lobby. She stops six steps in.  
“Ven!” She hollers toward the lobby desk, but no one’s there. Huh? Wasn’t it his shift right now? She checks her phone and sees it’s 9 AM. It still should be Ventus’s shift. It wasn’t like she told Ven the plan about going out with him to look around; but it was something she wanted to do.   
Desperately, Xion looks around the lobby for the blonde, but no one was around. She sighs in agitation but decides that maybe he will be back soon, choosing to sit down on one of the soft lobby couches. As she sinks into the couch, she clicks her heels, keeping her excitement to herself.   
Ten minutes pass before Xion hears the ding of the elevator. She doesn’t make a move until the door fully opens to reveal who it is.   
And it isn’t the blonde that she was waiting for. Instead, the person who comes walking out of the elevator and into the lobby is a tall and lean blue haired woman.   
“Aqua,” Xion calls out. Aqua looks up to Xion and smiles. Her cheeks look rosy and her smile is genuine and kind.   
“Hello, Xion,” Aqua walks over to the counter. “What can I help you with?”  
“I thought Ventus works this shift,” Xion blinks, completely vexed.   
“Oh,” Aqua covers her mouth, taken aback, “You were expecting him? We changed the shifts.”  
“Oh.”  
“I’m sorry,” Aqua bows, “I didn’t know. Ven keeps looking too tired during his shifts so I switched his shift with mine. He’s upstairs sleeping if you want to talk to him.”   
“No no,” Xion slowly shakes her head, “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”  
“Are you sure? I could go wake him up for you.”  
“It’s fine. He does always seem too tired,” Xion giggles. “I’ll just go hang out with Roxas and Axel.”  
“All right,” the blue haired woman nods and waves as Xion begins to exit out the sliding glass doors, “I’ll tell Ven you came looking for him.”  
Xion waves farewell and exits. In the plaza before her apartment building, she looks up into the clear blue sky at the shining sun, letting out a sigh. Maybe next time then.   
She looks down to the plaza, people beginning to scatter about in the streets. It’s time she went to meet Axel and Roxas.

 

“Hey, did you hear?” Roxas chirps, kicking his feet back and forth high above on the clocktower. Axel may be listening attentively to Roxas, but Xion isn’t. She is wavering in and out of her thoughts constantly.   
Roxas continues, “So I met Pence earlier and he said that apparently people having been hearing voices down in the underground tunnels.”   
Immediately, Xion perks up. Another rumor from Pence? The last rumor led her to Namine. Maybe this one will do the same for her. She’s found a lead in her little search. Now, her search is going somewhere. It may be relying on a rumor, but it’s almost worth it as the days made her worries strengthen.   
“Another rumor?” Axel rolls his eyes, “You actually believe what Pence says?”  
“I mean, it’s pretty interesting to know. Who knows? It might actually be true.”  
She tugs at Roxas’s gray jacket sleeve, “Wait, did he say anything else? About the voices?”  
Roxas looks over to Xion, “Uh, not really. He just said that his mom heard the voices on her way back home from the grocery store this morning.”  
“Huh,” Xion nods, taking in the information, “Did he actually hear it himself?”  
“Not that I know,” Roxas shrugs.  
“You can’t be interested in the rumor, are you?” Axel butts in.  
“Kind of,” Xion sheepishly admits.   
“Hey, you know what?” Roxas gets up from his seat, standing up on the ledge and staring out.   
“You want to find the voice?” Axel guesses. Roxas looks down at the redhead and nods.   
Xion hastily gets up, too, looking from Roxas to Axel. “Can we? Please?”  
“Fine. Fine,” Axel gets up, “If we don’t find anything, you guys are gonna have to treat me, yeah?”  
“What?” Roxas whines, “Why?”  
“Cause I’m tired and I just wanna nap,” Axel links his hands and outstretches his arms in front of him. It’s only now that Xion actually notices some bags under his eyes. The summer job must be hard on him.   
“Do you actually want to go?” Xion asks.   
Axel puts his right hand on his hip and shrugs his shoulder, “I could care less.”  
“You could just go back home and sleep,” Xion suggests. “I wouldn’t want to make you tire out even more.”  
“You sure?” Axel cocks an eyebrow.  
“Yeah,” Roxas nods in agreement with the suggestion, “We’ll just see you back home, all right?” The smaller male lightly punches Axel’s arm and smiles.  
“All right,” Axel turns to leave. It almost seemed like he was ready to leave anyways, “Don’t go crazy and hurt yourselves.”   
Now it is just the two: Roxas and Xion. As the two watch as Axel turns the corner to the exit from the clocktower, they keep quiet. Roxas turns first to Xion before Xion moves anywhere.  
“Wanna go?” Roxas gestures his head toward the exit. Xion simply nods and they too walk out with the sun’s heat still beating out in the day.   
As they go down the elevator of the clocktower, it remains silent until they reach the plaza. Walking out of the station, Roxas stays behind, standing still before the doors as Xion continues.   
“Roxas, what’s wrong?” Xion walks closer to Roxas, but it seems like Roxas didn’t know what to say. He just stands there, staring at the floor. When she walks closer to him, he finally perks up just before Xion was about to place her hand on his shoulder.   
“All right,” Roxas nods, “Let’s check this voice thing out!”   
A little vexed about the sudden mood change, Xion steps back, but she hesitantly nods, letting Roxas lead the search.   
Immediately, he heads to the gate next to the train station. After all, it’s right at the plaza. However, they stop far before reaching the gate, seeing that it’s closed off. The two pout, but Xion raises her voice.  
“Maybe we can check elsewhere?” Xion suggests. There are other ways to get into the underground tunnels anyways. They couldn’t just give up when they see only one of the ways closed.   
Roxas nods in agreement and begins to dash down the hill. Xion quickly chases after him. Once they exit out from the train plaza, Roxas walks down the hill before turning right into an alleyway. Following after him, Xion hears a faint sound of familiar voices and among them is a girl. Light and sweet. Could it be?  
Her heart’s racing and her pace picks up, quickly turning into the alleyway and approaching a small familiar group. Can it be within that group — ?  
When she arrives before the four people, Xion huffs, catching her breath. Namine? She looks over each person. Who is that she heard.  
“Oh, hey, Xion,” a male nods toward Xion.  
“Hey!” A female chirps. The voice. Xion turns toward the girl: thin, light brown hair that seemed all the more brighter under the sun’s glare.   
It’s Olette. The person she heard was Olette… Not Namine. The group that Roxas met here is Olette’s group: Hayner and Pence. The one who greeted her first was Pence. Xion looks around and realizes that they were in front of their usual spot.   
“So,” Hayner leans on Roxas’s shoulder and gives her a lopsided grin, “Heard you guys wanted to look into the rumor, huh?”  
“We were just gonna do the same, “ Pence smiles.   
“Oh, uh,” Taken aback, Xion thinks to herself for a moment but the conversation continues.  
“Maybe we can all go together to solve this mystery,” Olette glosses over each person present before looking back at Xion.  
“Yeah, actually,” Xion nods in agreement, “That does sound better.” Maybe they’d be able to find Namine quicker.   
“All right!” Hayner pumps a fist in the air, “Then let’s go solve this stupid mystery already!”  
“Yeah!” Everyone else cheers and joins Hayner, punching their fists into the air with glee.   
“But wait a sec, shouldn’t we split up if we were going to find the voice quickly?” Xion points out.  
“Oh yeah,” Roxas speaks up, “Xion and I just got back from trying to enter the gate nearby the train station. It was all gated up so maybe we should split up and just call each other if one of us finds an opening.”  
“Good point,” Hayner nods.  
“Aw, “ Olette lowers her head, “We could’ve gone together. It would have been more fun!”  
“So would just running around finding an open gate first,” Hayner rolls his eyes. He waves his arms up and down, “All right, then let’s make it a race! You two against us three. Deal?”   
“What?” Roxas whines, “You guys have Pence though. He’s the big rumor enthusiast so you guys have the upper hand!”  
“Okay, then,” Olette holds her hands behind her back, “Then Pence will have to go alone then.”  
“Fine by me,” Pence waves. “All right ready?”   
“Roxas and Xion vs me and Olette VS Pence,” Hayner smirks, “We’re gonna beat you guys.” He gestures to himself and Olette.  
“We’ll see about that,” Roxas smirks back.   
“All right. On count of three,” Pence starts  
“1.” They all count.  
“2.”  
“3!” Everyone dashes into different directions. Hayner and Olette were both confused about which direction the other was trying to go as Pence, Roxas and Xion speed through the streets in search of a gate that is open.   
Roxas and Xion quickly make their way over to Market Street then to the same plaza Xion’s apartment is located. Roxas thought it was a perfect place because there was two gates in the area so it was easier access for the two of them.   
However, they soon realize that Roxas is utterly wrong as there is only one gate. The gate that he thought existed actually is one of the garages where a tram stays when it wasn’t functioning.   
As they stand gloomily before the supposed gate, Roxas and Xion suddenly jump out of their trance by the sounding of something vibrating followed by the sound of a song played on an acoustic guitar— such a warm melody. Roxas places his hand into his pocket and retrieves his phone. He presses a button to accept the call. Xion watches as Roxas walks back and forth, talking to the other person on the line.   
Once he places the phone back in his pocket, he turns to Xion, opening his mouth to speak but Xion speaks up first.  
“Did they get in first?” Xion starts.  
“Actually,” the dirty blonde rubs the back of his head, sheepishly grinning, “They had to stop because Hayner was apparently trying to rip the gate open.”  
“With his bare hands?”  
“Yup,” Roxas chuckles, “And Seifer caught him so he sent the two home.”  
“Oh my god,” Xion laughs, “That would’ve been funny to see. I can’t believe they got caught that quickly!”  
“Yeaah,” Roxas smiles, “They were just at the gate nearby their usual spot. So that leaves us with…”   
“The one in Sunset Terrace,” Xion adds.   
“Wait, really?” Baffled, he looks away from Xion and toward the street where they came from. “Isn’t there other gates nearby?”  
“I don’t think so,” Xion shakes her head. “I’m just hoping Pence didn’t get there first.”  
And just like that, Pence enters the scene, walking in from behind the two.   
“So you guys heard what happened with Hayner and Olette?”  
“Yeah,” Xion and Roxas reply.   
“Well, that only leaves off just one more gate in Sunset Terrace,” Pence nods but shrugs. “The three of us could just go together. No need for racing, right?”  
“Yeah,” Roxas nods. “And you’re like a big lucky charm at finding all these rumors.”  
“All right, then let’s get going,” Xion walks toward the station as the other two follow. 

 

Once they arrive at the train station, Xion walks over to the counter for tickets over to Sunset Terrace.   
“That would be 1500 munny,” the lady tells them.   
Nervously the others checked their pockets to see if they have any munny, but all of them come out empty handed. Their shoulders drop, dejected by how unready they were for today.   
“Look’s like we’re all not going to see where the voice is coming from,” Pence sighs.   
“There’s always tomorrow,” Xion suggests.  
“Sorry,” Pence shrugs, “Hayner wanted to fight in the Struggle battle tomorrow so I’ll be there for the day. But you guys can still go!”  
“Yeah, maybe,” Roxas smiles toward Xion. “Tomorrow then?”  
But Xion doesn’t respond. She just nods and walks back to her house, the other two treading behind her.   
Eventually, the three split ways and Xion walks home alone. During her walk, she wonders if there is a reason why they weren’t having any luck today finding a gate into the underground; after all, no one said anything about any kind of construction of some sort happening in the underground. She then wonders that maybe something is just stopping her from trying.   
Even after entering her house, setting her bag down and laying on the couch, she continues on this thought. Perhaps it’s just meant to be. A mere coincidence of some sort, but why is it that she has this unsettling feeling that something is trying to keep her out of the tunnels. An invisible, uncontrollable force driving her away one way or another.   
As she lays on the couch, staring up at the ceiling, she tells herself that she has to investigate for herself — on her own. She wants to see if maybe she’s just not looking well enough. She needs to decide for herself where to look.   
Slowly her eyes grow tired and she closes them, giving in to a needed sleep. 

 

Day 15

She wakes up, nearly jumping from the couch. Xion looks down and realizes she hasn’t changed from the other day, wearing the same tan shorts and white T-shirt. Quickly, she gets up from the couch and leans over to grab her bag on the table in front of her to check her phone. It’s 5 AM.   
Perfect. Xion smiles, excited. This gives her time to beat the crowd and find Namine, finally. Hopefully. She runs over to her room to get a jacket, a little worried that the air may still be cold from the night’s hold. She picks up a black hoodie and puts up the hood. She walks out of the room and gets her phone and some munny, placing both in the hoodie’s pockets before exiting out of her room. She practically skips over to the elevator, but in agitation groans as the elevator could not arrive sooner.  
As soon as the elevator door opens, Xion hastily enters and presses the yellow glowing L button to get to the lobby. She taps her feet, feeling the slow motor of the elevator as it descends.   
The doors of the elevator slide open and the black haired girl pops out from the elevator. Surreptitiously, she makes big steps toward the entrance, hoping that Aqua doesn’t catch her and stop her. Fortunately, the person running the lobby desk right now is only Ventus, who is actually asleep on the job right now. Xion gives a quick smile before simply increasing her pace and running straight out of the doors.   
She doesn’t stop running until she arrives before the ticket booth of the train station. The black haired girl puts down her hood as she talks to the lady, struggling to get her munny out of her pocket to hand to the lady. The lady almost seems shocked by Xion’s abruptness, let alone the hour she is going on a train. Without a question, the lady slowly hands Xion the ticket and Xion runs to enter one of the trains.   
The train rides along the tracks quietly as the sun begins to rise from the horizon. There is no stops on the way over to Sunset Terrace, which made the ride smoother and easier for the morning. Xion leans her head against the window behind her, gazing onward toward the front of the train. This is it right? She will find Namine. Her final chance to know whether or not Namine really left without a goodbye this time… Whether or not Namine was avoiding her or she really had to go. All her thoughts would be put to rest after this. After this, she may move on with her life without worrying over Namine. She just has to prove it to herself so the unfathomable feeling within her would stop.   
Soon, the train comes to a halt, and Xion exits out of the train, not in as big as a rush anymore. She places the hood back up, hoping that no one would see her and talk to her on her way over to the entrance to the underground tunnels.   
The town is quiet in the morning. Even as she passes by several houses, the only sound she could hear is her own footsteps, the distant waterfall of the town, and some birds chirping. The tram of this part of town doesn’t make a sound, sitting still between two houses.   
Once she passes the tram, she turns right and passes the bridge. Looking forward, Xion smiles gleefully. This gate is actually open. She runs to stand before the tunnel to listen in. She doesn’t hear anything, but that doesn’t stop her spirits. Immediately, Xion runs through the tunnel.   
The tunnels go from a stone gray to a warm orange-yellow color. Neon signs that point out where the exits are located flicker on in the presence of Xion. The girl stands still as the lights turn on, looking to her left and right, trying to figure out where she can go. There is no sound in the tunnels: the voices that the rumor spoke about were not heard by Xion’s ears.   
Maybe Namine really isn’t here. Xion lowers her head. After all, the lights of the tunnel would have been on already if Namine were here. Then, she was wrong. That aching feeling she had was a fake and it was merely her hopes that made her believe Namine is here. Namine really did leave without saving goodbye and maybe it was Xion’s fault for driving Namine away from her town.   
Her stomach twists and Xion takes it as a sign to head home. She turns around and begins to walk toward the stone gray tunnels to leave. There was no point in rushing to head home since she was just going to go meet Roxas and Axel during the day anyways.   
Then there it is. As she comes closer to the exit, she hears something wavering: loud and then suddenly unclear; as though something is passing her.   
“Allright…thing…!” She hears from behind her. Her eyes widen and turn around. At first glance, she does not see anything, but she then finds something small floating onward to her left: is that a firefly?  
“Firefly!” Xion shouts. It was just like the fireflies back in the forest. What if…?  
She runs after the firefly, but as soon as her pace picks up, the firefly almost seems to fly more quickly. Returning to the yellow tunnels, she almost loses the sight of the firefly until she turns to her right. There, the firefly floats into a walkway, turning left from where she stands. She can’t leave it alone. Not after trying so hard to find Namine. Can it be? She runs into the same walkway and immediately stops when she stands at under the doorframe.   
She can’t believe it. Before her are fireflies flying around the vicinity. The same fireflies like back in the forest. Her gaze slowly moves from the high ceiling, where the fireflies take flight to the ground in front of her. A purple blanket covering the ground and pencils and crayons scattered about. Notebooks here and there. In the middle of it all lies a figure laying on the blanket, covered in white. Her presence almost glows when Xion looks at her.   
Her heart no longer twists in sadness but instead is jumping for joy when lo and beyond, there lays Namine, the girl she’s been looking for for the past few days. She could feel her tears overwhelming her as she smiles happily for the first time in a while. She trembles and falls onto her knees, giving into her tears but trying to wipe her eyes. She was actually right.   
She hears a shift in front of her and a shocking gasp. Xion looks before her and sees that Namine is now sitting faced toward her.   
“Xion?” It was her light voice again. That sweet voice that she remembers. But it was filled with slight worry. Xion smiles wholeheartedly and walks over and sits in front of Namine to embrace the blonde.   
“Oh thank god,” Xion continues to sob, “I thought something bad happened to you.” She holds Namine tightly.  
Only the sound of Xion’s sobbing stops the silence from entering. She can feel Namine’s cold but soft hands come across her back as Namine hugs Xion back, letting her head lay on Xion’s shoulder.   
“I’m sorry…” Namine’s voice trails off. “I’m fine.”  
Xion just nods, “I’m sorry, too.”  
Namine moves away from Xion, still having her hand on the black haired girl’s shoulders, “What for?”  
“If I was annoying…” Xion looks down.   
“Oh, no,” Namine shakes her head, “You weren’t…annoying me. I just,” Namine returns to hugging Xion. “I just thought I was being a bother.”  
“No, you weren’t,” Xion manages to mutter out. “I was just so happy to show you around. I’m just so glad you’re okay!” Her grasp on Namine tightens.   
Again, there is no response as Xion continues to sob away, but Namine lets go of Xion. She looks into Xion’s bluish-purple eyes and gives her a smile.   
“Hey, let’s go buy some ice cream, okay?” Namine suggests, rubbing Xion’s back as the taller girl’s sobs begin to soften.   
“Sure,” Xion weakly laughs, rubbing her eyes of any tears left in her eyes. She feels her eyes being puffy and wish it weren’t so. It was her fault, of course, but she wished it wouldn’t feel rather stiff.   
“I’ll pay,” Namine stands up and helps Xion to stand as well, “As thanks.”  
“No no, I should be the one paying,” Xion pats Namine’s naked shoulder. “You’re the guest of the town!”   
“Trust me, Xion,” Namine grabs hold of both of Xion’s hands, looking deep into Xion’s eyes. Has this been the first time that Namine truly looked at her with sincerity? Xion feels like it has, causing her face to heat up.   
“All right, you got me,” Xion tries to laugh it off.   
“Then, let’s go,” Namine begins to walk out, taking Xion along. And Xion lets her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry again for the super super late updates recently. Life’s been a little hectic but I managed to write this really long chapter just for you guys! I’ll probably disappear again trying to write some other fic but I’ll get back to the second arc of this fic asap! ^^ Thanks for reading!


	10. Day 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after having nothing better to do on the plane I winded up writing up the chapter. enjoy :P

Bright.  
Again, it’s the morning light, shining and awaking Xion. The black haired girl squints at the rays, shielding her eyes at first. By now, she thought she might have been used to the summer sun waking her, but every time it did, she would always squint and grumble to herself. Then, she thought perhaps what she really needs now is a whole day of nonstop sleeping; however, she also believed she’s been sleeping for quite a while today. Her body didn’t feel stiff or sore, and her eyes were quick to open. When Xion sits up, there’s no odd aches from joints bending. She’s fully rested; she hasn’t felt this way in a couple of days, but why? Her indigo eyes gaze up to the sun, watching as how its rays peer through her window sills.   
Namine. Xion realizes. Is she here still? Was yesterday a dream? Quickly, she scrambles to get up from the couch, almost tripping on her carpet before passing the coffee table. When she manages to straighten herself out, she walks hastily over to her bedroom door, trying to make her footsteps light so the neighbors beneath her won’t complain about the loud thuds of Xion’s footsteps in the morning. She lightly places her hand on the cold metal doorknob and gives it a little twist, only to find it locked. Of course. The front was always locked even when Namine left. She’s done this all before. She should have checked the bathroom door instead.   
So, the girl walks over to the bathroom door instead. It was open. She tiptoes through the door and finds that the door connecting the bathroom area to her bedroom is closed. Better check anyways, Xion shrugs. She gives the knob a twist and finds it unlocked. Did she leave again? She creaks the door open slightly just so she could peek her head in, but before she could manage to got her head through the crack of the door, Xion picks up the sound of soft breathing. She squints through the door to see any movement, and sure enough, she sees a small lump pitted under her purple and white sheets, making only slight movements here and there. Xion sighs happily, in relief, and slowly closes the door again. Namine’s still here.   
Gently she closes the door and heads back out to the couch. As soon as she exits, Xion’s immediate thoughts of doing anything else are abrupted by the deep sound of grumbling. She grabs at her stomach. Breakfast. That’s what she could do right now. She could make breakfast. Xion smiles to herself as she walks over to her kitchen. She could make breakfast for both Namine and her, but the question is what would she want to make for Namine? After all, Xion actually hadn’t made breakfast at all during the time Namine has been staying at her house: she’s just been giving her apples, and the more Xion thinks on it, it was like she was treating Namine like a horse. She really didn’t want to do that to a guest.   
Opening the fridge door, she finds that she’s nearly out of food. What’s left in the fridge are a couple of eggs, milk, and some yogurt. That wouldn’t work; maybe the eggs, but nothing else, Xion thought. She wanted to make some hot breakfast for Namine: maybe eggs then.   
Well, hopefully, Namine likes eggs. Xion silently giggles, grabbing four eggs: two for Namine and two for herself. Casually, she flings the fridge door shut, unfortunately making a loud thud. The black haired girl flinches, turning back to the refrigerator before turning toward the direction of her bedroom door, afraid that the thud may have woken up the blonde. She stands still for a couple of seconds, waiting for some sound or hint that Namine woke up but no sound was made.   
Xion lets a relieving sigh before she walks over to the stove, placing the eggs on the counter adjacent to the stove. Then she goes around the kitchen, picking up all the utensils she’ll need to make the eggs: a bowl to mix the eggs in, a pan to cook it in, and some plates when the eggs are done.   
Once she’s set everything in place, Xion begins to break the eggs into the bowl. She thought scrambled eggs would be good for the two of them hopefully. After grabbing a fork, Xion starts beating the eggs, breaking the yolk and watching as the yellow is quickly mixed with the clear egg whites.   
As the black haired girl continues to beat away at the eggs, she turns her head back to her bedroom door. When she turns back toward the counter and cabinets against the wall, Xion wonders how tired Namine must be, considering how long she’s been gone. Why was she gone, anyways? She tries to recall the day before and remembers how Namine was saying that she felt like she was being a bother.   
All the more reasons why she should make this breakfast for Namine. After yesterday, after reuniting with Namine, she just wanted to appreciate Namine. Her thoughts reimagined the two of them the day before. After they had gotten ice cream, the two decided to just sit at a nearby bench, simply just being there together in silence. She remembers just gazing at Namine, taking in what Namine looked like in that moment. Her kind blue eyes looked sad as she kept her eyes down. She kept the cold ice cream near her mouth, but only took bites every once in awhile. As Xion kept her eyes on the blonde, she just wanted to know what’s going on in the other’s head, but she thought it maybe be a little nosey if she asked. So, Xion kept the silence between them until it was time for the two of them to go home. When they walked home, Namine seemed to be in a better mood, but still, Xion didn’t want to ask what’s the matter. She’s just happy that Namine is allright. Perhaps, she’ll wait until the day that Namine tells her about it. That sounds like a better plan.   
Suddenly, she feels cold hands upon her shoulder. In a very soft but audible tone, a voice greets her, “Good morning.”  
The black-haired girl jolts in her place, gasping as she nearly loses her grip on the bowl. With one hand on the counter to keep her balance and another holding the bowl, she sharply turns to see who greeted her, just to see that it was Namine who had woken up. Her cold hand were still up from touching Xion’s shoulder. The blonde’s hair was fairly messy — as messy as the usual bedhead, with some of her hair tangled and clumped; some of her delicate hair finding its way onto one side rather than the other, where it may usually be.   
Once she catches her breath, Xion manages to stammer a “Good morning” back.   
“How’d you sleep?” Xion smiles, trying to get back on task, stirring the eggs again, but she kept her eyes on Namine.   
Then the blonde’s smile appears. The small smile as she replies, “It was nice. I don’t think I’ve had that nice of a sleep in a while. Thank you.”  
“Uhh,” Xion turns her back toward Namine as she stirs — a little more roughly, “No problem! Let me just finish up your breakfast! Are you okay with scrambled eggs?”  
“That’s all fine, but…” The blonde’s eyes focus downward from Xion’s eyes. With her own eyes, Xion tries to trace an invisible line from Namine’s eyes to what was grabbing her attention.   
“Oh,” Xion feels her face burn — almost unbearably. It wasn’t until Namine’s attention shifted that her hand began to feel sticky and cold. She shifts the bowl over to her left arm before checking her hand and sure enough, it was the egg’s yolk that she has been mixing. Attempting to wipe the goo onto her clothes, she tries to look over to Namine, who is simply smiling back at her; her tooth grin failing to help Namine hide her laughter, and it makes Xion want to smile, too, but Xion averts her eyes and turns away, sheepishly shrugging, “Whoops.”   
Light footsteps walk closer to Xion and soon smooth, soft hands meet hers. As soon as she feels the touch of the other’s hand, she darts her eyes forward and looks at Namine. There’s a soft look in Namine’s eyes that complements her sweet tone.   
“Here,” the blonde’s hands rest upon the black haired girl’s, soft and rather cold, “Let me help.”  
“Oh, uh,” Xion quickly tries to back up but is abruptly stopped as she rams into the counter, “Don’t worry! I got it. It’s just… eggs. No big deal.” She tries to shrug Namine off, but Namine is swift to take the bowl out of Xion’s sticky hands.   
“Just sit at the table,” Namine giggles, beginning to beat the eggs. She moves past Xion to stand before the stove. Xion doesn’t move, in slight awe of the blonde’s movements. It’s then she realizes that she has been gazing at Namine cooking for a little too long.   
Xion realizes she may be staring at Namine a little too long. She smacks her cheek, shakes her head, then heads back to the couch. Once she gets to the couch, Xion sits and crosses her legs, waiting for Namine. She feels a little guilty for not taking over breakfast. She was just stunned at that moment, letting Namine do what she wants. Again. It was the same way she felt the day before when she had finally found Namine, knowing that the blonde was perfectly safe.  
Her chest begins to feel warm and a smile grows upon her face. She looks down at her hands, remembering the sensation of Namine’s hand on hers. Many times, actually. She thinks about the day before, how Namine held her hand and walked her out to get ice cream together. And the perfect silent moment they held together as they sat together on that bench under the morning gaze whose light was feeble to the eyes.   
A clink of dishes from the distance brings Xion back to the present. She looks around to find Namine exiting the kitchen, hands full with two dishes of eggs. Namine stops next to the table, placing the two dishes down. The aroma of eggs fills the air and Xion couldn’t control herself, taking the plate into her hand just to grab the fork on the plate and eat away. Her ears pick up the sound of the girl next to her giggling quietly. Slowing her eating, she carefully glosses her eyes over to Namine, who was just busy eating her own plate of food. Xion lets a lopsided smile bloom on her face before going back to finish her breakfast. After all, she has to finish up her breakfast quickly if she wants to run Namine through the list of things to do that day. 

 

“So, what is ‘Struggle?’” The soft sound of Namine’s voice questions, leaning over toward Xion. The crowd around them made it hard for them to communicate normally without the need to get relatively close to each other. Everyone was already cheering — more than they were for Grandstander. With the beating sun and the mass of people around, perhaps the combined heat has made everyone more energetic than ever.   
“Oh, yeah, I forgot to explain,” Xion shakes her head bashfully. “So in a Struggle match, there’s two players and they go against each other. The match is timed so what the players have to do by the end of that timer is that they have to have more than the other.”  
“More of what?” Namine’s eyebrow jots up.   
“These little balls that stick onto the Struggle suits. You’ll see what I mean,” Xion nods her head toward the arena.  
“Have you played before?” Namine asks.   
“Oh, geez, no,” Xion rubs her face. “I don’t think I would even manage, to be honest.” Her tone dies down as sudden cheering begins to erupt from all around. Xion’s purple eyes search all over the arena until she finally sees the combatants. Cheering loudly, she pumps her fists into the air and soon, Axel joins along. Together, they cheer for their side: Team Roxas. In the middle of the arena, Roxas and Sora stand together, foam bats in hand and covered head to toe in red or blue balls.   
From her side, Xion could hear the faint sound of Namine laughing among the loud cheers.  
“What are you laughing about?” Xion leans over.  
“They look a little funny,” Namine covers her mouth shyly. “Sorry… I shouldn’t laugh.”  
Xion chuckles, “Nah, it is pretty funny looking.” Namine nods in agreement.  
As the referee begins the countdown until the match, the two turn back to the match. From her position, Xion could see that Sora and Roxas are already taunting each other; their bloods must be pumped, ready to win the fight.  
“3!” Everyone shouts. “2! 1! Struggle!”  
Rapidly Roxas slides forward with his bat ahead of him, but Sora is quick to jump back far enough to dodge. Sora runs around Roxas; Roxas still trying to land a hit on Sora. Then Sora begins to swing at roxas. Roxas was too slow to see Sora swing — he gets knocked back by Sora’s first swing: seven balls come falling off his costume. The dirty blonde gradually recuperates, slowly getting up. Through his bleary eyes, he sees the brown haired boy making his way around the arena, grabbing the blue balls that fell. Roxas shakes his head and jumps to his feet instantly and jumps at Sora, hitting Sora in the shoulder: four red balls falling from Sora. Sora cringes at the hit, moving to the side. Once he sees Roxas quickly retrieving the blue balls, Sora jumps and rolls over to grab the balls before Roxas can get it. Then, they meet hands trying to grab the final blue ball on the ground. They each pull back and forth with the ball.  
“ — And what are they doing now?” The referee baffles. The crowd’s roar begin to grow louder and louder the more the two struggle with the ball.   
“Are you supposed to do that?” Namine questions.   
Xion blankly stares at Namine before erupting in laughter, “Well, anything to win, I guess.”  
“They better hurry it up,” Axel groans, “The battle’s getting a little boring.”  
Keeping his tight hold on the ball, Roxas uses his free hand to hit Sora low in the stomach, making more red balls fly. . Roxas quickly sticks the blue ball to his outfit before running to get the red ones scattered across the floor.   
“Not yet!” Sora smacks Roxas’s hand with the foam bat and grabs the red balls back.   
“Ow…” Roxas shakes the injured hand, “Really, Sora?”  
“Sorry! Didn’t mean to hit your hand!” Sora keeps running to get the leftover balls.  
Roxas huffs and rushes over to hit Sora again, but Sora dodges. With a good distance away from Roxas, Sora hastily scans to see the board: thirty seconds left; Sora: forty-nine; Roxas: fifty-one. Very close game. Determined, Sora takes more control of his heavy breathing nodding to himself, ignoring the loud cheers and focusing more on Roxas’s movements. Roxas looks quickly at the scoreboard and changes his movements. No longer is he quickly advancing toward Sora; instead Roxas is getting away. This is his time— Sora's time.  
"Come on," Roxas taunts playfully. "Giving up, Sora?"  
Sora doesn't respond. Immediately, he slides rapidly toward Roxas, just as Roxas did before, but Roxas is quick to step to the side. That wasn't enough. Soon enough when Roxas thought Sora missed, Sora makes a hit into Roxas's side: now red and blue colored balls fall to the ground. As Roxas is sprawled on the ground, Sora falls on the ground onto the fallen balls.  
"Time's up!" The referee shouts, and the audience cheers on. "We will now count the points up!"  
The referee help both Roxas and Sora up on their feet. With their assistant they count the number of balls on each person's costume.  
As they do so, Xion looks over to Namine and asks, "So what'd you think?"  
"That was really fun," Namine admits. "They did such a great job... But I hope they're alright."  
"Oh, don't worry about that," Axel assures, "They both dealt with worse hits from other contestants. What we really gotta worry about is who won this round."  
The two girls nod and look onward awaiting the result.  
After some time, the referee stands in front of both Sora and Roxas, looking around the crowd.  
"And the winner is... Sora!"  
The crowd goes wild, louder than it was before. Throwing confetti over Sora, kids shout hooray.  
Xion could see Riku and Kairi running out of the crowd to join their boyfriend on the arena, hugging and kissing Sora in victory.  
Wanting to care for Roxas, Xion taps Axel and Namine and points toward Roxas. Quickly, they run over to Roxas, who was busy taking off the outfit. Xion greets Roxas with a big hug. Roxas chuckles, hugging back before looking over to Axel.  
"Come on, Axel," Roxas coos. Axel laughs and grabs hold of both of them, hugging both of them tightly. All three are squeezing their eyes shut and laughing away at Roxas's performance.  
The first to open their eyes was Xion, who looks over at Namine, standing before the three awkwardly. Soon Axel notices and lets go.  
"You too, Namine?" Xion lends Namine her hand. Hesitantly, Namine reaches out, but Axel's quick to wrap his arm around all three of them instead, making all of them shout. Once Axel lets go, all of them take steps away from each other's space to breathe. All four of them look at each other and grin happily.  
"You did a great job, Roxas," Namine starts first.  
Stunned by Namine talking first, Roxas's mouth goes agape before turning into a bashful smile.  
"Gee, thanks." But the smile is quick to leave when Axel slaps Roxas on the shoulder.  
"Yeah, you sure got ahead of yourself there," Axel shakes his head.  
"Yeaaah," Roxas pouts, "Definitely will take it more seriously next time against Sora."  
"You weren't serious?" Xion scoffs.  
"I mean... I was and then I got kinda cocky." Roxas admits.  
"Ohh, cocky Roxas," Axel pinches Roxas's nose, but Roxas waves him off. "Well, better luck next time, Rox."  
"Yeah, I think you can do it next time," Namine smiles. Roxas and Xion nod at the blonde.  
As cheers begin to die down and chatter begins to rise, Xion looks up at the sky: the light blue is far gone and has been painted over with hues of red and orange. Turning her head, she scans the arena for a clock. When she saw it, the clock reads 6:13 PM. Late already?  
"Hey guys!" A voice penetrates Xion's thoughts. She turns around to see Sora, Kairi, and Riku coming over.  
"Oh, Kairi!" Xion greets.  
"What's up?" Roxas nods over.  
"Pretty good match, Roxas!" Sora raises his hand. Immediately, Roxas high fives it and nods.  
"Yeah, you really kicked my butt there," the dirty blonde chuckles.  
"I'll make it up to you," After nudging Roxas's arm, Sora leans on Riku and continues, "How 'bout we all go get some food?"  
"Sounds good here!" Axel waves as Roxas nods.  
Without an answer, Xion checks Namine for an answer. When she looks over to Namine, she notices the slight slant in the blonde's stance. How she was rubbing her eyes over and over.  
Namine slowly looks over at Xion, "Sure, let's go."  
"Are you sure?" Xion cocks her head worried.  
"Yeah I'm good, let's go," Namine confirms but then unexpectedly, "Achoo!"  
"Whoa," Roxas steps back, "Namine?"  
"Oh sorry," Namine waves her hand, "I think it's just.... Allergies."  
"Maybe we should head back," Xion suggests.  
"Yeah," Axel joins, "Xion could help with those allergies. Maybe rest up. You seem rather tired."  
"Ah no, I could go on my own," Namine begins to walk off from the group. Xion stands still for a second trying to figure out what to do.  
"You should help her," Sora suggests. Quickly Xion nods and leaves, sprinting to meet Namine.  
When she is right behind Namine, she taps the girl's shoulder, making the other gasp.  
"Oh! Xion," Namine sighs, "You really don't have to come with me back to your house."  
"I'm just worried is all," Xion explains. "And anyways, you wouldn't be able to get inside, remember?"  
"Oh... Alright then," Namine submits. "Then let's go home."  
Xion nods happily as they begin to walk off.


End file.
